Native Plants: Usnea

When I went for my walk in the woods today, it was the first time I had been around the trail in a while... the rains and the cold make me look for more indoor projects. I felt disoriented at first by the now open, vast and dead-ness of the wooded area, I was beginning to feel a little nostalgic for the summer cause there was nothing but brown dead leaves to look at on the ground, and alot of briers to get caught on my clothes. Until I came upon a wonderful bright green lichen (a fuzzy wuzzy fungus) called Usnea! I learned about this plant many years ago at a "wellness weeds" class, that it was an herbal cure for strep throat, but I found my curiosity was peeked to really make sure this was the same usnea sold in health food stores and loved by wildcrafting herbalists.
So, while looking up info on identification, I found a neat trick in making sure it is really Usnea and not some other look alike lichen! Break open the main stem and check for a white middle, kinda like peeling the bark off a tree and seeing the lighter color inner wood underneath. Usnea's inner stem is a white strip. I broke mine open and found the white!

Here is some medicinal info on this cool little lichen:::

"Usnea has been used medicinally for at least 1000 years. Usnic acid (C₁₈H₁₆O₇), a potent antibiotic and antifungal agent is found in most species. This, combined with the hairlike structure of the lichen, means that Usnea lent itself well to treating surface wounds when sterile gauze and modern antibiotics were unavailable. It is also edible and high in vitamin C.

In modern American herbal medicine, Usnea is primarily used in lung and upper respiratory tract infections, and urinary tract infections.

Usnea lichen is important to note because it has life-saving potential. Native Americans employed it as a compress to severe battle wounds to prevent infection and gangrene, and it was also taken internally to fight infections. Usnea contains potent antibiotics which can halt infection and are broad spectrum and effective against all gram-positive and tuberculosis bacterial species. Usnea has several unique characteristics which make its identification easy if stranded in the wilderness far from a hospital. "

Go here to read how to make your own Usnea tincture!

XoXo

I Heart Bloodroot

Bloodroot is my favorite native North Carolina plant, that is next to the Elderberry. I mean, just look at this picture - isn't it so heroic, oddly shaped and cute? Bloodroot is usually found growing deep in the woods under big shady trees- anytime I have seen the sun touch them the leaves burn and die.
"Bloodroot is one of many plants whose seeds are spread by ants, a process called myrmecochory. The ants take the seeds to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes, and put the seeds in their nest debris, where they are protected until they germinate. They also get the added bonus of growing in a medium made richer by the ant nest debris."
Now that is freaking awesome! In wikipedia it warns that the sap is toxic and can disfigure skin over time - but I read a statement by Dr. Andrew Weil that he used it to remove moles and it would separate the mole tissue from the live tissue and then heal cleaner then a surgical cut. (To read more about that theory get his "Spontaneous Healing" book... it's a cool book for anyone faced with an incurable disease.) Either way, I am in love with bloodroot - for it's beautiful shape, cool history of native american use, it's controversy and it's actually native!
Viva la native gardening! YAY!

June Bug?!

I have only seen this wildly green beetle since living in the smokey mountains, the first time being 6 years ago in a cemetery by the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have heard people call them "june bugs" although the june bugs I experienced growing up in New Orleans were tiny and all brown (but in New Orleans everything is different "roley poley bugs" are called "doodle bugs".) I wanted to share this big guy with ya'll, pictured here crawling on my neighbor Heather's hand- and ask this:
Are they native to North Carolina?
I heart this bug!