Celebrating Healing Plants - Issue # 7 - Northern Bedstraw (Galium boreale)
Northern Bedstraw (Galium boreale)
Walking down the trails and lanes in our forest home you are likely to see the billowy clouds of white flowers of the Northern Bedstraw
As the name suggest it had a use by the early settlers in their mattresses and pillow stuffing.
It would be combined with it's close relative the sweet scented bedstraw which, when dried, has a scent resembling vanilla.
This also made good bedding for the cattle.
Sweet Scented Bedstraw (Galium triflorum)
Another popular use was to make a true red dye, prized by the Great Plains Indian and also prized over in Scotland and Britain where they almost depleted the area of the shields gathering theses red dye producing roots for their Elizabethan party clothes!
The Native people combined the fine roots with wood ash and strawberry juice, being careful not to boiled their concoction too long or it would become a yellow dye.
The Cree used the roots combined with high bush cranberries to produce the red dye.
The young plants can be cooked as a potherb, served hot with butter or cooled and put in salads.
Bedstraw seeds make a good coffee substitute
Being in the same family as the coffee plant, the seeds can be roasted for a good coffee substitute.
Most powerful in a juice form, the bedstraw juice was used for healing wounds or used as a wash for skin problems including rashes, excema and for sunburn.
Poultices of the fresh herb can help reduce tumors.
You can make yourself a hotpack or foot bath with it for those sore aching muscles and sip a cup of tea made from leaves and flowers.
It tastes somewhat like green tea and has a diuretic effect. It is used for urinary tract and kidney problems, also to relieve diarrhea.
It is a relaxing cooling drink sometimes used for insomnia and as a cleanser. Using it for weight loss, the acids in it speeds up the metabolism of stored fat.
Bedstraw is often included in formulas for treating enlarged thyroids which is accompanied by obesity and water retention.
There is a warning when drinking the tea continuously, it can irritate the mouth and tongue. Also it is not suggested for people prone to diabetes.
Bedstraw can be used like yarrow to stop nosebleeds by crushing it up and putting it in the nose.
Plus historically, it had been boiled and used as a wash to remove freckles.
There you have it, a very versatile plant that is also lovely in wild flower bouquets or folks are cultivating it to use in their gardens for a lovely display and also to attract bees and butterflies.
Photo of Northern Bedstraw is my original.
Photo of the Sweet Scented Bedstraw is from the Wisconsin State Herbarium by Kenneth J. Sytsma
Cup of coffee was from Graphic Stock
I love engaging with folks here so please feel free to leave any comments or questions,
if you found this post beneficial an Upvote is appreciated.
Please don’t hesitate to follow me here on steemit at @porters
A pillow stuffed with this stuff sounds nice, falling asleep with the smell of vanilla sounds plesent
Yes I've been tempted to try that and combine it with some mugwort for lucid dreaming!
Right! I was thinking maybe i was crazy lol. BUt yes this sounds very enticing.
Bedstraw was one of the herbs my sister planted in the original herb gardens in 1992. It has survived there since then, growing to large proportions over the summer. Because it's done so well there, I didn't consider it for addition to the New Herb garden.
It's also related to cheevers, a wild version that grows around here. I didn't know about the coffee family connection.
Interesting! Yes, cleavers is a common name for it and there is many variations of bedstraw. The sweet scented one is more like what I refer to as cleavers. Common names can make things a bit confusing, that is why I like to include the Latin or Batonical name.
Nice pictures @porters! I don't think I have ever come across (or looked for) the Northern Bedstraw. I certainly will next spring! Thank you for this informative post!
It is a very common plant here.
You live in Britain, correct?
They had almost wiped out the plant in the shields area by harvesting the root for the red dye color for their fancy Elizabethan costumes!
Yeah, I do live in Britain. I'll make sure to keep a look out for it (if it still grows here!) as I'm interested to see if it's also common here :)
wow I am always so impressed by the amazing medicinal properties of such common plants, I see this plant a lot in Ireland and here in Spain, thank you for sharing your wisdom and the wonderful gifts from nature xxx
You're welcome. I love researching the common plants around our place, especially if they have been used by the Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of the land where I live. I always feel the best way to prepare (comes from my prepper days) is by gathering knowledge and I'm always happy to share what i have found.
This is a discovery for me. I forgot that pillows used to be filled with straws. I need to see what Australian plant can be used as a coffee substitute.
Another name they go by is Cleavers so you could look that up. They are in the Rubiaceae family which consists of flowering plants in the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family (cleavers is part of this family)
Then there is always dandelion root to use as a coffee substitute or chicory.
You are lucky to have these plants in your forest home. When we live in cities and tall buildings, this just becomes a dream and in middle east even the climate does not support many plants :-(
Can you give me tips which are some good indoor plants to have.
I do feel very fortunate to have such abundance around me but we do have very long cold winters too when not too much grows.
I tend to go with indoor plants that clean the air.
I have my peace lily, Mother-in-law's Tongue, spider plant and then I have all my indoor gardening happening.
Read about it at: https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@porters/why-i-brought-my-gardening-indoors-indoor-gardening-project-part-5
Here's a picture -
Thank you for sharing it my dear, I will go through it. Each region has it's own challenges and we need to adapt with it.
So true!