3 April 2017 ~ Jim’s ethnobotany of spicebush below Helen’s observations.

Traipsing through the lowland forest this past weekend and even on the cold dreary days of last week, it was impossible to miss hints lemon yellow glistening in the understory. Drawing nearer, it became detectable that the bright color standing out against the past winter’s worn out brown was from the small flowers of the spicebush shrub, Lindera benzoin. Spicebush is in the Lauraceae or Laurel family, which includes sassafras and avocado.

spicebush flowers dominating the color scheme of the understory 4/2/2017

For those of you also in the outdoors this week and near a spicebush, focus in close and look into the flowers. Do you see pollen laden anthers of the male staminate flowers?… or do you see a roundish central pistil overshadowing small non-functional stamens in the female pistillate flowers? There are only male flowers on some bushes and only female flowers on other bushes. This type of division of the flower sexes with separate male plants and separate female plants is indication that spicebush is dioecious. Dioecious means “two houses” and is a term used mostly to apply to species with separate female and male plants. The males produce viable stamen with pollen for cross pollination of the female plants. I noted on my walks that the majority of the spicebush shrubs were bearing male flowers. According to John Eastman in the Book of Forest and Thicket (1992). “the female plants will be pollinated from “early solitary bees, ladybug beetles and by bee flies.” The female flowers will eventually drop, and if pollinated, the ripening ovaries will become lipid rich small red drupes appearing toward the end of summer. Wood thrushes and veeries enjoy the ripened fruit as do an occasional songbird.

spicebush berries or drupes

Spicebush flowers before the leaves emerge in late winter to early spring. Many folks who frequent the outdoors in the mid-Atlantic know this native plant even in a deer nibbled wood. Deer avoid munching on this plant most likely due to the aromatic scent just beneath the outer bark ~ making it unappetizing for these four-legged herbaceous beings. Often spicebush is the most prolific understory plant where deer are in high populations. The scent is one of nature’s defense mechanisms. No matter the season, scratch the bark and the spicy citrusy scent is very apparent. The scent is also apparent in the flowers bark and berries.

Spicebush male staminate flowers above and female pistillate flowers below (not quite opened) from the macrophotography studio of the United States Geologic Survey 

Jim Duke, who turns 88 on 4/4/2017 on spicebush:

on the phytochemicals:

“thanks to the work of Tucker and associates (1994), we know that the leaf essential oil is dominated by beta-caryophyllene (~ 15-50%), 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (~2-35%), and (E)-nerolidol (~10-12%). The twig essential oil is dominated by 1,8-cineole (~45%), sabine (~7%), alpha-terpineol (~ 7%), and alpha-pinene (~6%). Fruits are dominated by alpha-phellandrene (~65%). (Tucker, Maciarello, Burbage and Sturtz, 1994).

That shows the chemical variation in different plant parts. If you were after a single phytochemcial, you would usually find more beta-caryophyllene in the leaf essential oil, more 1,8-cineole in the twigs, and more phellandrene in the fruits. Once we get our database integrated this might hint at which part of the plant might be better for a given indication. There are at least four antiyeast compounds in spicebush: borneol, cineole, limonene and beta-pinene. This suggests, but by no means proves, that you’d be better off with the twigs for a yeast infection. Coincidentally, I am suffering a yeast overgrowth now as a result of Doxicyclene. In addition to Lactobacillus, I am taking garlic and spice bush tea from the back yard to curb the yeast.”

SPICEBUSH by Jim Duke (Written before his retirement almost twenty years ago)

Approaching retirement from the federal government, I am getting a bit more uninhibited about sounding off on one of my favorite themes, giving the herbal alternative a fair shake. Today, I’ll just talk about spicebush (Lindera benzoin), its culinary and folk medicinal uses, and its potential as a remedy for yeast (candidiasis), an ailment widely mentioned on TV today..

Spicebush is one of the commonest undershrubs in the forest around my place. And it has quite a bit of folklore about it. Still I don’t find reports on the chemicals which no doubt contribute to its aromatic, culinary, essential oil, medicinal, and pesticidal properties. We and the Asians have studied their species of Lindera while ignoring ours. And some American scientists, while busy studying alien species of Cocos, Cuphea, and Umbellularia as sources of lauric acid, ignore this copious resource in our back yards.

Is spicebush a food? Facciola (Cornucopia, Kampong Publ. Vista Ca. 1990) says:

“Young leaves, twigs, and fruits contain an aromatic oil and make a very fragrant tea. The twigs are best gathered when in flower as the nectar adds considerably to the flavor. Dried and powdered fruits can be used as a substitute for allspice. The new bark is pleasant to chew.”

King’s American Dispensatory (Eclectic Institute, Reprint 1984) says:

“The dried berries were used during the American Revolution and in the South during the late Rebellion as a substitute for allspice … The bark, in decoction, is said to be refrigerant and exhilarating, and exceedingly useful in all kinds of fever, for allaying excessive heat and uneasiness; a warm decoction is employed to produce diaphoresis. The decoction may be drunk freely.”

I quote these directly so you, and the FDA, may see that they have served as tea and spice for years. That puts them in the category I abbreviate GRAF, generally recognized as food.

In my Handbook of Northeastern Indian Medicinal Plants (Quarterman Publ., Licoln Mass. 1986), I mention that the Cherokee Indians used spicebush for blood disorders, cold, cough, croup, dysmenorrhea, hives, phthisis and swellings. Cherokee drank spicebush tea as a spring tonic, and steeped the bark with wild cherry and dogwood in corn whiskey to break out measles. Creek Indians used the teas for pains of rheumatism, (anodyne antirheumatic), for purifying the blood (depurative) and making themselves puke and sweat. (emetic and diaphoretic). Wisely they added willow to spicebush tea for drinking and using in the sweat lodges for rheumatism. The drug of choice today is still usually based on salicylates derived from willows. Ojibwa took the tea for anemia and that “tired rundown feeling”. Rappahannock used the tea for menstrual pain or delayed periods.

To these Moerman (Medicinal Plants of Native America. Mus. Anthropol., Tech Rept. 19. 1986), in his more extensive survey adds that the Cherokee also took the tea for hives (sometimes associated with yeast, JAD). Iroquois used it for colds, fevers, gonorrhea, measles, and syphilis. Mohegans chewed the leaves or took the tea for worms.

In their Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants (Houghton Miflin, Boston. 1990), Foster and Duke add that the settlers used the berries as a substitute for allspice. It’s not bad! Medicinally the berries were used as a carminative for flatulence and colic. The oil from the fruits was applied to bruises and muscles or joints for chronic rheumatism. The tea made from the twigs was popular with the settlers (and available all year) for colds, colic, fevers, gas, and worms. The bark tea was used for various fevers, including typhoid, and to expel worms.

In all that listing of applications, there’s not much folklore to anticipate that spicebush might be useful in yeast (candidiasis). But maybe the Indians didn’t have yeast. Apparently the yeast is a normal component of the flora of all human beings.

Maybe cadidiasis is mostly an iatrogenic ailment, induced by our medicines. Respected naturopaths, Murray and Pizzorno (Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Prima Publishing, Rocklin CA. 1991) say that when antibiotic use first became widespread, it was noted immediately that yeast infections increased. White man’s alcohol, anti-ulcer drugs, corticosteroids, increase in diabetes, oral contraceptives, tights insead or cotton undergarments, and too much sugar in the diet all may have contributed to the emergence of candidiasis as a major ailment, today afflicting half our womenfolk. The total incidence and relative frequency of vaginal candidiasis have increased more than two-fold since the late 1960’s.

There are a lot of synthetic alternatives for yeast, Nystatin, which is effective in mild cases. But Murray and Pizzorno suggest that garlic is more effective than Nystatin. I’d like to see the results of comparative heads-on trials between garlic, Nystatin and spicebush extracts. I’d like to see spicebush extracts compared also to Terazol, which reportedly leads to recovery of 95% of patients within three days. I’d like to see it compared with butacoconazole (Femstat), clotrimazole (Gyne-Lotrimin), ketoconazole (Nizoral) and miconazole (Monistat), all reportedly with an 80-90% cure rate. But the Graedons, after listing the latter four, reiterate the anecdote of the lady who had wasted $2,000 in office fees and medication, when a GP prescribed douching three times a day with 2 tablespoons vinegar in a quart of water (Graedons, 1991). That solved her $2,000 problem.

Studying 54 plant species for antimicrobial effects, Heisey and Gorham (1992; Letts. Appl. Microbiol. 14: 136-9.) found that extract of stem bark of Lindera benzoin (“spicebush”) strongly inhibited yeast (Candida albicans), much better than any of the other 53 species. (Walnut husks also showed some activity.). Now if vinegar could have saved that lady $2,000, might not a vinegar extract of spicebush bark and garlic be even better. Spicebush is best of the 54 studied. Garlic is reportedly better than Nystatin. I suspect that our mixture might be as safe and efficacious as any of the drugs names above, but we’ll never known.

You’ve seen the flurry of ads for expensive over-the-counter “remedies” for yeast. “See your doctor if you’re not sure. But if you’re sure you have yeast, use our brand.” Ten years ago, my doctor told me you couldn’t be sure without identification of the microorganisms involved. I doubt that has changed. Our FDA has become more relaxed in this regard. But if you started selling spicebush/garlic/vinegar for yeast, you’d be breaking the law, and the FDA might get you. But they won’t bother those OTC drugs because they have been proven safe and effective, to the FDA’s satisfaction, apparently. Are they more or less safe and efficacious than spicebush/garlic/vinegar? I don’t know. You don’t know. The FDA doesn’t know. The drug companies and physicians don’t know.

I want the best medicine for myself and my family. But nobody is going to invest $231 million to prove that spicebush/garlic/vinegar is safe and efficacious for vaginal candidiasis. Hence we’ll never know. Unless somehow, we convince some influential congressperson that no new drug for candidiasis should be permitted unless it is compared, not only to placebo, but to the best herbal alternative (s) as well. If the herbal alternative works safely, the world should know if. More than two-thirds of the world’s population and nearly a third of Americans can no longer afford the high-tech synthetic options. And their cost is going up at a much higher rate than other segments of our economy. So fewer and fewer of us can afford the modern pharmaceutical. And there’s no governmental or private incentive to investigate the cheap herbal alternatives, that may be as safe and efficacious.

James A. Duke (4 April 1929 ~ 10 December 2017)

With sadness, we wish to inform readers of this Green Farmacy Garden blog site that Jim Duke peacefully passed in his home on December 10, 2017. He lived an amazing life filled with adventure, plants, people and music until his senectitude at age 88. Jim’s desire was for his medicinal plant sanctuary to continue for as long as possible to educate and inspire students. We, at the Green Farmacy Garden, are committed to Jim’s vision and will maintain the garden for tours and workshops. Look for a list our tours and workshops in the spring.

to read tributes of Jim, click on the following links:

https://thegreenfarmacygarden.com/from-the-desk-of-james-a-duke/

https://thegreenfarmacygarden.com/jim-dukes-legacy/

http://cms.herbalgram.org/press/2017/NotedandBelovedEthnobotanistandHerbalMedicineAdvocateJimDukeDiesat88.html?ts=1515382070&signature=d065a61cdb12ec2b9a514d0f221cd2c9

http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2017/12/in-memoriam-jim-duke.html

http://www.muih.edu/remembering-dr-jim-duke

Remembering Jim.

April 25th 2018

The veil of winter has finally lifted after its power struggle with spring forced a long endurance of raw cold, strong winds, rain, snow, and ice. Although the cacao plants (Theobroma cacao) in the greenhouse didn’t make it, hope springs eternal as the winter shabby Rosemary has come back to life with new flowers blooming – albeit after losing over 60% of growth from last fall. Rosemary is a hard one to keep alive during our Maryland winters.

Jim is gone but seems to be everywhere in the garden. As I walk around, I hear his stories and teachings. He loved his rosemary. We spread Jim’s ashes a couple weeks ago in the garden just after what would have been his 89th birthday. We spread them under the rosemary, in the ayahuasca shamanic plot, by the ginseng, and wherever folks were moved to go.

here’s what I had to say:

I have far too many stories of jim… and I’ve told this story far too many times of realizing a well-known botanist lived not far from my home. I learned of Jim back in my early 30’s after receiving a copy of a letter that he wrote to Seeds of Change in Arizona. I hesitantly called the phone number printed on his Herbal Vineyard Stationery and immediately reached Jim. He gave me his address on Murphy Road and told me to look for the driveway by the pine trees.  For over two years, I shyly drove past this driveway before I had the nerve to turn in… which I finally did… only after I saw an open gallery sign as my chance not to feel too intrusive. Although the sign was for Peggy’s art gallery, she was not home, and I found Jim back working in his basement office. He kindly got up, left his desk, and with his genteel nature walked me around the square garden (which preceded the Green Farmacy Garden), offered me some mints and nettles, and then took me on a stroll into the woods. Afterward, in the basement where John’s office is now, he played a beautiful instrumental rendition of El Condor Pasa, “The Condor Happens” a Peruvian piece written for a musical in 1913. In the early 70’s, an English version El Condor Pasa (If I could) was made famous by Simon and Garfunkle. Jim encouraged me to go to Peru that day. As a young mother, I knew I would go, but I also knew it wouldn’t be for a long while. I finally went to Peru in 2003 with Jim and Holly, and while there, I heard many, many renditions of El Condor Pasa.

While walking through the garden this late winter February reflecting on Jim and how much he hated winter, I was looking at the stubble dishevelment of plants and listening to the red-shouldered hawks squabble. I always think of Jim and Peggy when I hear the hawks squabble… but I also started thinking of that day I met Jim just barely less than 30 years ago. Although he played me an instrumental version of El Condor Pasa, The Simon and Gardunkle version and lyrics came to mind. Jim didn’t remind me of a sparrow, or a hammer, but I could imagine how he’d rather be a forest than a street…

And I certainly knew the last line pertained to Jim… I’d rather feel the earth beneath my feet, Yes I would. If I only could, I surely would.

Yes, Jim would rather feel the earth beneath his feet, yes, he would. This barefoot doctor was firmly grounded – he was rooted, focused, and fixated on plants and music.

I spent a lot of time in this garden with Jim. He had his favorite topics and plants. The yin/yang valley and the yin yang huo or the horny goat weed; the faba bean l-dopa and priapism; the evening primrose and alpha linolenic acid; sweet annie, artemisinin and malaria; his stinking rose garlic necklace, the spirit of the wintergreen; St. Johnswort and the FDA; dying his hippy beard yellow, nettles and the five or was it six neurotransmitters…acetylcholine, choline, histamine, leukotriene, and serotonin, and formic acid and occasionally he would say secretin, and I would wonder, “is that a neurotransmitter?”; he sang about how ginseng makes an older woman younger a younger woman hunger, an older man cocksure and an younger man endure; he talked about alcoholic hamsters and kudzu, and he taught about mayapple lemonade and genital warts.

At the beginning of his tours, he also talked about a less known plant Angelica dahurica, “Bai Zhi” – this plant was in his garden to represent Don Quai or Angelica sinensis. He liked to tell students that the plant is in the Apiaceae or Carrot family along with edibles and spices – parsnip, dill, anise, parsley, fennel but also in the same family as poison and water hemlock.

He taught that Angelica dahurica is a biennial as he dug up young roots to show how thick and fleshy they were (show roots). During its first year, the roots are edible and gathered energy from the sun and nutrients from the earth. He taught that the next year it bolted up 4 – 5 feet, put out thickly sheathed large parsley-like leaves, bore numerous flower inflorescences that attracted pollinators and how the flowers’s ovaries ripened to become seeds. Once the plants bolted he would tug at it gently and show how it easily came out from the earth (show dried stalk)…because at this point when the seeds were ripe that the roots, which had once been anchors, were basically non-existent. The next generation had been cast to the wind, seeded, and the adult plant no longer was necessary.

I began to think of how Jim represented Angelica dahurica during the time I knew him -with the earth beneath his feet acting like roots gathering, compiling, working, teaching, so he could…yes he would… spread his wisdom, knowledge and spirit to so many and most importantly – to the next generation. At some point in the last decade, the neuropathy set in and he longer could feel the earth beneath his feet. It took some time for Jim’s anchor to let go, but he did so under his own will. He let go knowing that his seeds, his teachings, would be carried on, and so he sailed away like a swan that’s here and gone.

All of us at the garden and his family will continue to maintain and realize his wish to do whatever is necessary to keep the garden a sanctuary to come, visit and learn – especially in bare feet. Yes we can, and we surely will.

Better late than never, Jim Duke’s Obituary appeared in the New York Times

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 6, 2018, on Page A28 of the New York edition with the headline: James Duke, 88, Scholar Of Indigenous Remedies. 

By John Motyka

Dec. 5, 2018

The life-changing experience for James A. Duke came as he roamed the lush jungles of Panama in the mid-1960s, munching on the plants indigenous peoples used for food and medicine and learning firsthand about them.

At the time, he was two years into his job as a botanist for the Department of Agriculture and working on a federal project, ultimately abandoned, to determine the feasibility of excavating an alternative to the Panama Canal using low-level nuclear bombs.

And what he found there, and ate, excited his imagination and led him to embrace ethnobotany, a then-emerging field that investigates the healing properties of plants that indigenous peoples have used for millenniums.

His field work, incorporating botany, natural healing and anthropology, took him to remote corners of the world, often in the company of native guides and even shamans — worlds away from his early professional success as a standup-bass player in country, bluegrass and jazz bands.

His peripatetic research made him a widely acknowledged expert at a time, the 1960s, when interest in traditional cultures was on the rise, in tandem with the burgeoning counterculture in Western countries.

Dr. Duke was also a pioneer in identifying phytochemicals, the now familiar, often beneficial chemical constituents of foods like antioxidants in oregano and flavonoids in green tea. He poured the results of his work into a 1997 book, “The Green Pharmacy: New Discoveries in Herbal Remedies for Common Diseases and Conditions From the World’s Foremost Authority on Healing Herbs,” as well as into an extensive database he compiled for the Agriculture Department.

The book has sold more than 1.5 million copies, according to the publisher, Rodale Press.

For all Dr. Duke’s achievements, however, his death, on Dec. 10, 2017, at 88, did not draw widespread attention; it was reported at the time mainly by organizations devoted to botany or nutrition. The New York Times learned of his death recently while seeking to update this obituary, which was written about four months before his death.

His daughter, Celia Gayle Duke Larsen, said Dr. Duke died at his home on his six-acre herb farm in Fulton, Md. No specific cause was given. In addition to Ms. Larsen, he is survived by his wife, Peggy-Ann K. Duke; a son, John; four grandchildren; and one step-grandchild.

Dr. Duke at a jungle camp in Panama in 1968. What he found there, and ate, led him to embrace ethnobotany, a field that investigates the healing properties of plants that indigenous peoples have used for millenniums. Credit Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr.

In “The Green Pharmacy,” Dr. Duke wrote that the trip to Panama, his second, involved interviewing local people about the wild plants they ate. The aim was to determine how long they might be displaced from their homes and way of life — “six days, six months, six years, six centuries or six millennia,” he wryly wrote — if the local flora were destroyed in building an alternative canal.

The local people, Choco and Kuna Indians, knew exactly what was going on, Dr. Duke wrote, and sometimes asked if similar nuclear-based efforts were being used in, say, dredging the Great Lakes. The effort, sponsored by the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission, sputtered and was allowed to lapse.

“The Green Pharmacy” took a folksy, anecdotal, sometimes whimsical approach to describing the herbs, foods and teas that Dr. Duke recommended for various ailments, arranged alphabetically. He named one tea “DyspepsiKola.”

A gentle exhortation often followed a recommendation. After noting that the herb chamomile, which is known to soothe nerves, also has potent anti-inflammatory compounds, he wrote, “If I had carpal tunnel syndrome, I’d drink several cups of chamomile tea a day.”

Dr. Duke stressed that the stories he had heard, whether from indigenous peoples or the doctors and other herbalists cited in the book, often reflected empirical and historical findings about healing plants.

He was critical of pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who zealously prescribed their products. Skeptical of the high prices and side effects of modern drugs, he championed plant medicines as a viable alternative.

“If you and I go around sucking on licorice root, which can guard against ulcers, that’s not going to make any money” for drug companies, he told Anne Raver, a gardening columnist for The Times, in 1991.

Dr. Duke had his own remedies. “To cure a cold, he mashes up the stems and leaves of forsythia,” Ms. Raver wrote. “To help strengthen weak capillaries, he makes ‘rutinade’ from violet and buckwheat flowers, lemongrass and rhubarb stalks, and herbs high in rutin (anise, chamomile, mint, rose hips).”

Dr. Duke’s authoritative reference book from 1997 has sold more than 1.5 million copies, according to its publisher, Rodale Press.

He also made lemonade from the wild plant Mayapple and wrote a ditty about it:

Penobscot Indians up in Maine

Had a very pithy sayin’:

Rub the root on every day

And it will take your warts away!

. . . I’ll venture to prognosticate

Before my song is sung:

This herb will help eradicate

Cancer of the lung.

Botany and music continued to be entwined in his life, however. While working, he would pick up gigs at clubs and perform with jazz, blues and country singers.

“The deeper I delved into botanical medicine with its earthy folk roots,” Dr. Duke wrote, “the more comfortable it ‘fit’ with the music I played, which also had deep roots in the same earthy folk experience.”

He married Peggy-Ann Wetmore Kessler, a fellow botanist, in 1960. An illustrator as well, she made all the drawings for “The Green Pharmacy.”

In retirement, Dr. Duke conducted tours along the Amazon River in Peru, here, in 1995, under the aegis of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER). Credit Steven Foster

Dr. Duke’s first work experience in Panama involved identifying plants along the last uncompleted stretch of what would become the Inter-American Highway, reaching from Alaska to Chile. His team collected more than 15,000 specimens in the two and a half years he spent on that trip to Panama.

Dr. Duke held various positions at the Agriculture Department. As chief of the Plant Taxonomy Laboratory, he traveled to South America to help the State Department investigate and limit the cultivation of coca, from which cocaine can be extracted. He also visited Vietnam and neighboring Southeastern Asian countries to identify cash crops that might be grown as alternatives to the widely cultivated opium poppy.

He got what he called his “dream job” at the department in 1977, as head of the Medicinal Plant Laboratory. In that job he traveled to China, the Middle East and South America to collect specimens for a cancer-screening program being run jointly with the National Cancer Institute. The program, he wrote, analyzed 10 percent of the world’s known plant species for anti-tumor activity.

After retiring from the Agriculture Department, Dr. Duke sometimes conducted tours, often barefoot, along the Amazon River in Peru. He’d also give tours of his herb farm, the Green Farmacy Garden, in Fulton, about 18 miles north of Washington.

Dr. Duke’s other books include “Handbook of Medicinal Herbs,” an authoritative reference work first published in the late 1980s, and “The Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America,” which he wrote with the herbalist Steven Foster.

In 1991, Herbert Pierson, a fellow Cancer Institute toxicologist, told The Times that Dr. Duke’s strength as an expert in herbal remedies was in his own firsthand experimentation, measuring the effects of plants on himself.

“He actually practices what he preaches,” Dr. Pierson said. “Nobody should underestimate his knowledge. He knows from folkloric use that these things aren’t used by chance, that they’ve survived the test of time.”

Indeed, in an interview with Ms. Raver in 1992, Dr. Duke spoke about his enthusiasm for dandelion. He liked the roots pickled in old pickle vinegar, and he had eaten every part of the dandelion, from root to seed.

“Dandelions are extremely rich in beta carotene and ascorbic acid, the flowers in particular,” he said. “I sometimes eat 100 flowers in a day. I was trying to see if I’d turn orange from beta carotene, and it didn’t work.”

A Tribute to Dr. James Duke and His Green Farmacy Garden

When intern Astrid Stephenson and I arrived at the James A. Duke Green Farmacy Garden in Fulton, Maryland, we found director Helen Lowe Metzman wrapping an enormous rosemary plant with burlap. On that mid-November afternoon, the damp chill portended even harsher weather. She had already dug up all the tropical plants and relocated them, safe and warm, in the nearby greenhouse.

We walked on a carpet of bright yellow ginkgo leaves, adding rays of sunny color to the overcast day. We took the fieldtrip to see what might be left of the American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) plants, as part of research for an upcoming program of the 2020 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. At this point in the season, we saw just a dried tan stalk where bright green leaves and red berries flourished earlier in the fall. Nearby, other plants with similar healing properties have braved the weather better. Helen showed (and let us taste) one called jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum) whose still green leaves look like a tiny ground cover version of ginseng.

Astrid displays an American Ginseng (Panax quiquefolius)root preserved in alcohol.

Ask anyone interested in traditional plant-based medicine if they have heard of Dr. James Duke, and they invariably answer in the affirmative. His most popular book, Green Pharmacy, and other prolific writings grace countless bookshelves of herbal medicine aficionados. He developed the Green Farmacy as a “teaching garden” with 300 native and non-native medicinal plants. He welcomed students and the public to the garden to learn about these plants and their healing powers. Dr. Duke passed away in December 2017, but his garden lives on in tribute, lovingly tended by Helen and others.

Having worked in the garden, first as a volunteer [since 2003] and then as director [since 2007], Helen is determined to keep the garden as close to its original intent and structure as possible, but she also has ideas and wishes for improvement and change. And she would like to groom a new director who is a good fit for the garden. She talks of keeping Dr. Duke’s legacy alive in the garden. I recall Smithsonian horticulturalist Janet Draper recounting the saying, “a garden dies with the gardener.” She didn’t mean the whole garden dies, but those parts of it that were unique to the gardener will necessarily change and evolve under new overview.

But the Green Farmacy lives on, in a mostly dormant state heading into winter, with the hope of inevitable renewal in the spring. Helen tells us that Dr. Duke’s ashes were scattered in various places within the garden by devotees during a memorial service in June. A small alcove near the top of the garden includes some of his quotes, and a laminated photo of his smiling face framed by mullein flowers (Verbascum thapsus). Even as casual visitors, we could feel his spirit there—an energizing force.

Betty Belanus is a curator and education specialist at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and a future master gardener.

https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/tribute-dr-james-duke-green-farmacy-garden

 

Daddy won’t you take me to the Primary Forest by the Amazon River where Paradise lies.

Honoring his end of life wishes, ethnobotanist Jim Duke’s ashes were scattered not only in his Green Farmacy Garden but also into the lush diverse forest of the Amazon River basin. Jim’s dear friend and rainforest companion, Andrea Ottesen, PhD, along with Explorama’s garden curator and shaman, Guillermo, mixed his ashes with Peruvian earth as they planted sacred Jergon Sasha (Draconitum  loretense) in Jim’s ReNuPeru Garden. Above the treetops on a perfect sunset evening, Jim was blessed during a traditional ceremony performed by Guillermo. Guillermo was adorned with a shapaja palm (Attalea sp.) headdress as he chanted from the highest platform of the ACTS canopy walkway. In and around an enormous Ceiba or Kapok (Ceiba pentandra), Jim’s ashes mixed with jungle spirits.

Several of us escorted Jim’s ashes to the rainforest. His daughter, Celia Larsen, who had accompanied her father to the jungle approximately 25 years ago, made the journey from Michigan. Andrea Ottesen helped organize the trip with Explorama staff and came with her FDA colleagues and University of Maryland students. My family, including my husband, son and daughter, met up with the rest of the group and all of us were facilitated by Basilio, an expert guide and veteran of Explorama as well as musician par excellence. Basilio had worked with Jim for decades to help assist with his “Pharmacy from the Rainforest” tours. Jim was at peace knowing his ashes were to be spread in the garden and the rainforest.

The song, Te Quiero, in this video is to be credited to Basilio and accompanying Caobas musicians from their CD entitled Misterio Verde. Caobas musicians serenade many who travel to Explorama lodges and the Peruvian guitarists highlighted the evenings for Jim.

Here at The Green Farmacy Garden we’ve been hard at work preparing the Plots and Terraces for visitors: pruning, weeding, seeding, mulching and labelling; all so we can share these plants and their traditional and emerging medicinal uses with YOU!!

We’re always eager to share the wonders and delights of this place and the season with our friends, so please come volunteer with us on a Wednesday or Thursday between 11 and 4, or catch one of our upcoming Tours and Workshops!

Our apologies, for it has been far too long since we have written here and kept up to date with our beloved site. Our “Tours and Workshops” page here, as well as our Facebook and Instagram pages (both at The Green Farmacy Garden), have kept most of our attention and become the main platforms to inform the community of our blossomings and happenings. While we are working on some tweaks and edits to the website, it is our endeavor to post writings and pictures here more regularly this coming season.

With the formalities out of the way,…

We hope you’ve had a wonderful solstice & holiday season, celebrating all the light, joy, hope, & love that fills our world.

Things out in the garden have long since settled down for the cold moonths, but inside we’ve still been busy little garden elves (gnomes;) excitedly organizing, planning, & preparing for next season.

One of the most anticipated things filling our time this winter is looking to hire a new assistant gardener! This is a paid, part time position without benefits, and will start in March & work through mid or end of November.

If you or someone you know is passionate about gardening, native/medicinal plants, and interested in applying, click on the ‘Employment Opportunities’ link at the top of the page for the full job listing, description, & how to apply.
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Feel free to share this post with others to reach more of the lovely plant people:)


Warm wishes,
Annie-Sophie & Veri

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In the meantime, here are some pictures from the first snow to ‘blanket’ the garden January 8, 2020

lower sunny terraces, stone chiminea, and large workshop gazebo dusted in snow

Joyfull Juniper

serene pond scene

::a personal account followed by some botany, research and lore::

Plectranthus barbatas among the greenhouse tangle of tropicals

A tale of curiosity awakened creativity::
As I entered the greenhouse I was enveloped in an intoxicating, exotic sense I had never experienced before. A divine fragrance coaxed to me from somewhere within the verdant tangle of tropicals, the euphoric ambrosia salivating my taste buds and nose with bliss & curiosity. What was this pleasantly unfamiliar scent embracing me in mystery and familiarity?
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To my left I was greeted by the vibrant violet pockets of Plectranthus barbatas’ blossoms as I had been for several weeks. I knew she wasn’t the source of the enchanting scent, as I had long discovered she is a visual appeaser without a detectable perfume. Ever since I was a child, upon meeting a new plant, or any time I see a familiar ally, my first instinct has always been to explore it & smell it, creating an olfactory sensory memory, though I never realized the science, or instinct rather, behind it. In doing so it is tying together all the senses through the feel of the plant’s branches, leaves & petals as the flower is drawn close to face; the sight of the colors & fine details in the blossom as it is brought to the nose; the sounds of the surroundings completing the harmonious connection as the scent transforms to taste dancing through the sinuses, senses & spirit.

Plectranthus barbatas flowers… not the source of the divine aroma

Our sense(spirit) of smell and olfactory system are one of the oldest tools we hold to observe and learn our environment. Aromas carry the aura of beings into the deepest wells of our mind, weaving countless, ineffable subconscious connections along the way to our conscious. A most distinct metaphor for all the senses, and life in general. A most primal sense of security and detector of our surroundings, our sense of smell gives us clues and insight to our biosphere, often long before our other senses. Scents are woven into thick memories layered by intuition & experience, knit by our senses and perceptions. Fragrances awaken the conjuring of these memories in our subconscious & somatic selves, along with remembering the feeling of these experiences our conscious evolved mind otherwise couldn’t recall on it’s own. Often inducing a déjà vu feeling, seeing from remembering. Taking us to a place seen before but not looked back on in precisely the same way & awareness.

Brunfelsia grandiflora flowers

As I continue the usual scan of the greenhouse at eye level, I turn my gaze upwards to the rising winter sun bursting through the glass, warming & deeply steeping the alluring scent into the space. My eyes fall on a welcome greeting of soft, playful periwinkle pink peeking at me from among the lush tapestry of tropicals. Dainty blossoms atop delicate twisted branches, dancing in a gentle twirl up to the sun, weaving through the neighbors while gracing them with flirty frills. I reach up to bring the flowers towards me and am carried to a warm, fresh afternoon at the edge of a colorful jungle, dense with undergrowth and exotic bird melodies. The breeze is carrying the scent of divine delight and harmonious life dancing with the rosy tune.

The flowers are reminiscent of vincas, (of which I am fondly familiar, & will always associate with my beloved mother), simple in design though complex in sense and bud depth. The buds are a miniature vase, a spiral of silky pop. The blooms and buds arranged in a perfect pattern of varying stages, to ensure a continuous flow of alternate flourishing for days to come. As I brush my fingers upon the petals, their velvet silk caresses my fingertips, the hues of lilac & lavender & blush blending together in a dripping ombre swirl of coy & joy. The exotic essence kissed my nostrils and taste buds with a softly distinct rosey-lilac aroma; ethereal & familiar, simple & mystical, radiating from humble blossoms of unknown insight.

Brunfelsia swirl flower bud

I had met this plant before I knew, but realized had never fully known her until now. Connections were made and she speaks many things to me; so will always remember yesterday, today, & tomorrow all woven into one simple, ever flourishing, bloom cluster. She is Brunfelsia grandiflora, Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow.

❦A-S
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∞ bursting of coy & joy

Some botany and other information:: 

Brunfelsia grandiflora is also known as chiric sanango in Spanish; fever tree, kiss-me-quick, or yesterday-today-tomorrow in English. It is a member of the Solanaceae or nightshade and potato family. It is a small tree that grows wild in tropical South America. The leaves are 10-13 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, entire and oval shaped with a drip-tip and alternate in arrangement.

changing colors of Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

The flowers are 2-3 cm in diameter occurring in small clusters on stalks 2-4 cm long. An English common name for Brunfelsia grandiflora; Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow; comes from the way the flowers change from purple the first day of bloom, to lavender the second, and finally white on the third day of blossoming before they start to fade. Our Brunfelsia here at The Green Farmacy is very happy in our greenhouse and has been blooming prolifically for 3 weeks now!

Endless layers of Brunfelsia blooms

Brunfelsia grandiflora is used throughout the north west Amazon region to treat fever, hence another one of it’s English monikers, fever tree. A brew from the leaves and/or bark is taken or a root infusion. The root is known for it’s diuretic and analgesic properties, thus has been used to treat a range of ailments by Amazon healers from yellow fever, to syphilis, to snakebites, to arthritis. Shuar shamans mix the Brunfelsia root into batches of ayahuasca tea in ceremony for its hallucinogenic properties.

The root medicine is very potent and can come with severe, even fatal, side effects if not used with proper knowledge, experience, reverence, and care. Some side effects include, but are not limited to, chills, itchiness, nausea, vomiting and convulsions. The leaves are a safer medicine of Brunfelsia grandiflora and are known as a pain-reliever. A tea of the leaves is used throughout the northern range of the Amazon basin for common colds, arthritis, rheumatism and venereal disease.

The spanish name, Chiric Sanango, comes from the Quechua word chiric meaning “itchy” or “tickling” and refers to the sensation when the brew of roots is swallowed. Chiric Sanango is regarded as Grandfather Medicine, the male counterpart to the feminine ayahuasca in ritual ceremonies. Chiric Sanango is one of the master plants of the Amazon given to the shamans or curandero/as to see visions and listen to the plants’ knowledge of healing, well being, and ritual. These experiences with the plants are called dietas, which involve drinking an extract of a master plant or planta maestra, living in seclusion, and eating light and simply for a period of time varying depending on the planta maestra. Chiric Sanango’s power specifically is revered so highly that it is a ‘pre-requisite’ dieta shamans or curandero/as must experience before serving all other planta maestra medicines.

Disclaimer:: The content on The Green Farmacy Garden blog is for educational and informational purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice. We, the authors of The Green Farmacy Garden blog, are not medical professionals and the information contained on this blog should not be used to diagnose, treat or prevent any disease or health illness. Please consult with a qualified health care professional before acting on any information presented here. Any statements or claims about the possible health benefits conferred by any herbs, foods, supplements, essential oils, or lifestyle changes have not been evaluated by medical professional or the Food & Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. We, the authors of The Green Farmacy Garden blog, will not accept responsibility for the actions or consequential results of any action taken by any reader.

No part of this publication shall be reproduced, transmitted, or sold in whole or in part in any form, without the prior written consent from The Green Farmacy Garden blog author(s). All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing in this website are the property of their respective owners.

“… And thus the snowdrop, like the bow
That spans the cloudy sky,
Becomes a symbol whence we know
That brighter days are nigh; …”

‘Origin of the snowdrop’ –George Wilson

Galanthus nivalis

Snowdrop; Fair Maid of February; Bulbous Violet

The snowdrops bloomed last Sunday February 2, right in tune with Imbolc/Candlemass – the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox – heralding the celebration of spring’s soon return. Accompanied by the hellebores, snowdrops are the first flowers to bloom here at The Green Farmacy Garden after most of winter is behind us, announcing that spring is right around the corner. Their iridescent gems dapple the woods behind the pond and down the trail beyond the old shed, coaxing exploration and enjoyment. They encircle Jim Duke’s old chair down by the woods stream in a verdant embrace adorned in light drops; a solitary place of hopeful contemplation and content.

snowdrops encircling Jim’s chair by the stream

It’s an amazement how their dainty, delicate stems are strong and persistent enough to push up through the frozen ground and pierce the layers of leaves to bless us with their simple beauty. It’s no wonder the snowdrops have been revered as a sign of hope, patience, and endurance by many cultures around the world for centuries. They are also spoken of as shy, humble flowers, as signified by their drooping blossoms. This posture has come to be realized as an attribute to keep the dusty pollen dry and protected from the winds, rains and snows of February. As there are few insects awake to help pollinate this time of year, the bowing heads of snowdrops are also to ensure their soft scent stays sweet and detectable.

This snowdrop’s botanical name is Galanthus nivalis. The Greek ‘gala’ is the word for ‘milk’ and ‘anthos’ the word for flower, while ‘nivalis’ is Latin for ‘snowy/growing in or near snow’. Thus Galanthus nivalis can be poetically translated to “milkflower of the snow”. The Welsh name for snowdrops is Eirlys meaning ‘snow lily’. Galanthus nivalis are native to the mountainous alpine regions of mainland Europe and Southwest Asia, where the winters are cold and harsh. The quaint flowers favor shady, moist areas such as woodlands. Snowdrops are perennial bulbs of the family Amaryllidaceae hardy in USDA zones 3-7. The Amaryllidaceae family is, aptly named, the Amaryllis family, of which members are typically perennial plants that resprout yearly from their underground bulbs. Daffodils, onions, and lilies are also members of this family. There are 15 species of the genus Galathus, 2 of which have naturalized in (mostly) north eastern United States- Galanthus nivalis and Galanthus elwesii. Galanthus bulbs grow in compact masses of shiny green, pointed leaves, well adapted to pierce through moist leaves and snow layers. Each mass of thin, arrow-like leaves protects a single stem topped with one flower. Snowdrop flowers stay open a long time, stretching their petals ever wider with each passing day.

At The Green Farmacy Garden, Galanthus nivalis can be found in the Alzheimer’s plot. The alkaloid galantamine was first isolated from Galanthus and has been used to treat Alzheimer’s, neuritis, and neuralgia. Galantamine has been found to help prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter necessary for healthy brain function and memory. This theory that the breakdown of acetylcholine is the cause of Alzheimer’s was the prevailing thought when the garden was founded over 20 years ago. While new theories have developed since this time, the exact cause of Alzheimer’s is still unknown. Though the isolated alkaloid of Galanthus is made into pharmaceutical medicine, all parts of Galanthus nivalis are toxic and poisonous to eat.

Despite their raw toxicity, snowdrops have been cherished by our ancestors for their symbolism of hope, endurance, persistence, and the lengthening of daylight. A potent reminder that beauty is just as healing and nourishing as medicine herbs and food. Taking time to be still, observe, and be held in wonderment humbles and fuels our souls with hope.

‘She calls up the first snowdrop’ : Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

“Welcome, welcome!” sang and sounded every ray, and the Flower lifted itself up over the snow into the brighter world.
The Sunbeams caressed and kissed it, so that it opened altogether, white as snow, and ornamented with green stripes.
It bent its head in joy and humility.

“Beautiful Flower!” said the Sunbeams, “how graceful and delicate you are!
You are the first, you are the only one!
You are our love! You are the bell that rings out for summer, beautiful summer, over country and town.
All the snow will melt; the cold winds will be driven away; we shall rule; all will become green, and then you will have companions, syringas, laburnums, and roses;
but you are the first, so graceful, so delicate!”

-excerpt from ‘The Snowdrop’ by Hans Christian Anderson

The following is an ancient German tale that speaks to the graciousness of snowdrops:

“At the beginning of all things when life was new, the Snow sought to borrow a colour. The flowers were much admired by all the elements but they guarded their colour’s jealously and when the Snow pleaded with them, they turned their backs in contempt for they believed the Snow cold and unpleasant. The tiny humble snowdrops took pity on the Snow for none of the other flowers had shown it any kindness and so they came forth and offered up to the Snow their colour.

The Snow gratefully accepted and became white forevermore, just like the Snowdrops. In its gratitude, the Snow permitted the little pearly flowers the protection to appear in winter, to be impervious to the ice and bitter chill. From then on, the Snow and the Snowdrops coexisted side by side as friends.”

http://www.creativecountryside.com/blog/the-folklore-of-snowdrops

A little kindness goes a long way. Take care of me I’ll take care of you. It takes a village.

“Alluding to the colour of the flowers.
The snow-drop, Winter’s timid child,
Awakes to life bedew’d with tears;
And flings around its fragrance mild,
And where no rival flowrets bloom,
Amidst the bare andd chilling gloom,
A beauteous gem appears!”

–The Language of Flowers (1839)

The snowdrops also appear in a Christian tale of creation that Scottish poet George Wilson depicted in his poem “Origin of the snowdrop”. The tale starts as Adam and Eve hold hands in tearful shame walking away from Eden after they are exiled. The snows start swirling around them nipping their extremities with frost. An Angel appears feeling sorry for them, and with the freshly fallen snow cupped in hand, The Angel breathes upon it and the first snowdrop flowers were born. The Angel offers the dainty pearly blossoms to Adam and Eve as a sign of hope, endurance, persistence, and humility for their kind into the world beyond. Below is George Wilson’s retelling of this tale:

Origin of the snowdrop

No fading flowers in Eden grew,

Nor Autumn’s withering spread 

Among the trees a browner hue, 

To show the leaves were dead; 

But through the groves and shady dells, 

Waving their bright immortal bells, 

Were amaranths and asphodels, 

Undying in a place that knew 

A golden age the whole year through. 

But when the angel’s fiery brands, 

Guarding the eastern gate, 

Told of a broken law’s commands, 

And agonies that came too late; 

With longing, lingering wish to stay, 

And many a fond but vain delay 

That could not wile her grief away, 

Eve wandered aimless o’er a world 

On which the wrath of God was hurled. 

Then came the Spring’s capricious smile, 

And Summer sunlight warmed the air, 

And Autumn’s riches served a while 

To hide the curse that lingered there;

Till o’er the once untroubled sky 

Quick driven clouds began to fly, 

And moaning zephyrs ceased to sigh, 

When Winter’s storms in fury burst 

Upon a world indeed accurst, 

And when at last the driving snow, 

A strange, ill-omened sight, 

Came whitening all the plains below, 

To trembling Eve it seemed affright 

With shivering cold and terror bowed 

As if each fleecy vapour cloud 

Were falling as a snowy shroud, 

To form a close enwrapping pall 

For Earth’s untimeous funeral. 

Then all her faith and gladness fled, 

And, nothing left but black despair. 

Eve madly wished she had been dead, 

Or never born a pilgrim there. 

But, as she wept, an angel bent 

His way adown the firmament, 

And, on a task of mercy sent, 

He raised her up, and bade her cheer 

Her drooping heart, and banish fear; 

And catching, as he gently spake, 

A flake of falling snow, 

He breathed on it, and bade it take 

A form and bud and blow; 

And ere the flake had reached the earth, 

Eve smiled upon the beauteous birth, 

That seemed, amid the general dearth 

Of living things, a greater prize 

Than all her flowers in Paradise. 

“This is an earnest, Eve, to thee,” 

The glorious angel said, 

“That sun and Summer soon shall be; 

And though the leaves seem dead, 

Yet once again the smiling Spring, 

With wooing winds, shall swiftly bring 

New life to every sleeping thing; 

Until they wake, and make the scene 

Look fresh again, and gaily green.” 

The angel’s mission being ended, 

Up to Heaven he flew; 

But where he first descended, 

And where he bade the earth adieu, 

A ring of snowdrops formed a posy 

Of pallid flowers, whose leaves, unrosy, 

Waved like a winged argosy, 

Whose climbing masts above the sea, 

Spread fluttering sail and streamer free. 

And thus the snowdrop, like the bow 

That spans the cloudy sky. 

Becomes a symbol whence we know 

That brighter days are nigh; 

That circling seasons, in a race 

That knows no lagging, lingering pace, 

Shall each the other nimbly chase, 

Till Time’s departing final day 

Sweep snowdrops and the world away.

George Wilson (1818–59)

A short fairy tale

How the Snowdrops Came

Fairies are never allowed to stray out of Fairyland during the winter-time. But when spring comes they may dance and play in the woods and meadows of the earth as long as they please, and at night they may sleep out in the wood, curled up in a bluebell or a buttercup.

There was once a fairy called Silver Wing, who grew tired of waiting for the spring-time. One day early in February she whispered a secret to her playmates.

She was going to run away from Fairyland and see what the earth looked like in winter-time. Her little friends said it would be great fun to go with her. As soon as supper was over the naughty little fairies slipped away in the dusk until they came to the first wood outside Fairyland. For a long time they played there, looking very gay and pretty in their green silk frocks and white bonnets. But at last they crept into a bed of ivy leaves and went to sleep.

When they awoke in the morning the ground was covered with soft snow, and a man whose coat was trimmed with hoar-frost, and whose cap had a border of glistening icicles, stood before them.

The little fairies all felt quite frightened when they saw him. They trembled so that even their teeth chattered, for they knew that he was jack frost, and he was stern.

“I don’t allow fairies to come here during the winter-time.” he said angrily.  “Why couldn’t you keep away until ‘Bluebell-time’?”

To punish them for their naughtiness he turned them into flowers and kept them prisoners for three weeks and a day.

Then he allowed them to go home; but every February they have to return for a few weeks, and the children of the earth call them snowdrops.

from “Land of the Happy Hours” by Stella Mead
– first pub: James Nisbet & Co. Ltd  1929

-Helen Jacobs

The many faces (phases), & stories of Helleborus‘;

Hellebore

We hope to see you in the Garden this season!

Hellebore Lore

Melampodium, an old name for Hellebore, refers to the ancient physician Melampus who used Hellebore to cure the daughters of the king of Argos of the madness of the maenads. These women were the much feared worshippers of Dionysus who were known for their ecstatic frenzies they would achieve during worship.  Whether she was actually mad, or just an independent woman worshipping with others like her is unknown.

Viktoriya Danileyko

 

Some have speculated the Alexander the Great died of Hellebore poisoning while being treated for an illness. Meanwhile it was said to have been a common prescription of Hippocrates for insanity and mania. In medieval medicine it was used to cure demonic possession, madness and epilepsy.  At that time these ailments would have been looked at as one in the same.  The powdered roots and leaves would be smoldered to calm one already in a frenzy. It had a reputation for its connection to madness and mental deterioration, supposedly creating a catatonic like state in those suffering the madness of maenads, however in healthy individuals it would induce similar symptoms, which could speak to its homeopathic like uses.

*creator of soul-stirring beauty… if you know please do share<3

1:The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners: Wolf D. Storl  2:Treasury of Gardening  3:Magical Herbalism: Scott Cunningham  4:https://witchipedia.com/book-of-shadows/herblore/hellebore/&nbsp; 5:https://www.patheos.com/blogs/poisonersapothecary/2018/06/11/the-court-of-helleborus-a-collection-of-hellebore-lore/

*Spring’s Simple ReTreat*

it’s all there

Claytonia virginica : spring beauty

We just passed the breathtaking tipping point. The beautiful balance between light and dark before the lengthening days take full stride. The vernal equinox is a time of vibrant beginnings and energized awakenings. Time for deep connection of distant rememberings. Disconnecting to reconnect, letting the faded blooms decay to nourish new life. The new growth sprinkling the landscape with gems of colorful renewal. Coaxing curiosity with breeze kisses to wander into the woods, dip your toes in, and saunter through the serene. It is joyful and colorful; coy and exuberant.

In many ancient cultures & traditions still remembered today, it has long been the beginning of spring by this turning point. Our region seems to be reflecting that quite beautifully this year with perennials barely hibernating & early bursts of blooms abound amidst historically cold times.

Magnolia liliiflora : lily magnolia : with forsythia accent

Spring is alive amidst the fog and haze. Sure as new growth and life and death and decay. Just as the night ever overcomes, so does the long light always return. And then again retreat. But only after becoming suspended in balance, in Between.

Prunus pendula : woodside edged weeping cherry blossoms

Prunus pendula: dainty wild weeping cherry just sprinklin’ into bloom edging the driveway<3*

And then back in the flow again. No such time or date or balance. Always moving in this state and that, ever spiraling, changing, growing, fading. Nature, the season, and the cycles, all of Life, in an open-ended dance and endless unfolding. Weaving and twisting, separating and individualizing. Dancing and harmonizing and twisting… No constants or usual ‘normals’, simply steadily free flowing. Adapting and becoming, resilient and reserved. Brewing, executing, and observing all at once. The light, dark, above, below, within, without, between. It’s all there.

{{ does the light seem brighter in the dark? }} . *.yellow hues of forsythia, celandine and narcissus illuminating moody spring tunes.* .

We just passed the breathtaking tipping point. The beautiful balance between light and dark before the lengthening days take full stride. The vernal equinox is a time of vibrant beginnings and energized awakenings. Coaxing you with breeze kisses to wander into the woods, dip your toes in, and saunter through the serene. It is joyful and colorful; coy and exuberant.

The moss-green pond skirted by butterbur hill, hugged by Magnolia grandiflora, wisped by forsythia, and backed by hellebore holler… stunning spring sight <*3

It’s the mist blanketing the sunrise, blurring the turning of immeasurable time. It’s the earth breathing with life, bubbling with mysteries, weaving white thread-less. It’s the symphony of early risers and late peepers, the morning phoebe call hopping a wobbled balance tune. It’s the natural pruning of spent stalks & heavy branches with the tender charm of the spring breeze. The broken, seasoned bits making way for new light to warm the depths. The careful selecting growth in gratitude for all of earth’s gifts and ethereal blessings. Blissful presence cultivated from the memories of passed seasons lovings and lessons. The next cycle nourished by the healing of before, wounds grow to woven knowns. It’s all there.

Anemone blanda : woodland windflower : a fitting name for a welcome timely beauty in this cloudy winds-of-seasons-change time

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

It’s the forsythia glistening in the morning sun, dancing with life. It’s the call of the wood frogs, strong and keen and resting in the shadows. It’s the sweet, alluring scent on the changing breeze, dipping just in and out of reach, from the hyacinth, the lilac, sweet violets, the wild cherry, the… It’s the faint buzz of the drowsy first pollinators bumbling beneath the undergrow, calling & curiosity blazing the way. The flowers like flames to a yellow coal, nourishing and pleasurable.

flaming Forsythia suspensa spring flags

It’s the soft fuzz of bud cover bursting gently at the crossroads, the blossoms finally breathing free. It’s the primal call of the hawk circling the waves, just out of sight and always in reach. It’s ancient pairings and new beginnings guiding through deep bone knowing. It’s the tingle of fresh, excited nettles waking you the last final bit from your deep slumber, welcoming you in. It’s the coy, playful bloodroots winking at you among the leafall, beckoning you to come seekcloser.

It’s the cackle of the wild turkeys joyful in the frolic. It’s the branches bearing to the weight and the earth catching the fall. It’s the kill, and spent parts, and past leaves feeding the next. Its the pruning of the old to nourish a’new. Its birds and fox and frogs fading and mating and renewing life. It’s the peeper harmonies in the evening, lulling you to ease. It’s gentle and sure and playful and persistent. Life and death, light and dark, rememberings and new beginnings. Coaxing you to distance closer and rediscover your neighbor. Uncover the truth and remember you.

fiddleheads in the forest

Following the worn paths until unknown ones are made… surprising what leads where. That’s the only way light can pass through the breaks of dark, dawn, routine & sleep; the balance of Being & Flowing. You gotta get down in the dirt to find the new growth; dance up through the dark to find the new light {life}

The woodland bridge crossing Grandpa’s Creek at the Yang trail… there’s new wildflower bulbs planted below the trees framing the bridge…

Ordinarily I go to the woods alone, with not a single friend, for they are all smilers and talkers and therefore unsuitable.

I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds or hugging the old black oak tree. I have my way of praying, as you no doubt have yours.

Besides, when I am alone I can become invisible. I can sit on the top of a dune motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned. I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.

If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.

-How I go to the woods, Mary Oliver

Jim Duke’s chair over looking Margo’s creek surrounded by snowdrop scircle

Nature is whole and yet never finished.

We are of Nature.

Take a peek into the creek or down the woodland path and see what finds you. Oh the treasures we find when we don’t even try. Does the light seem brighter in the dark? May you get lost in the woods to find your self. Your peace. Your place. You can only see the magic if you look. The answers, the questions, the mysteries the curiosities. The present. Its all there.

vibrant Salvia rosmarinus, rosemary flowers backdropped by Forsythia

Colorful chaos amidst overcast benevolence births moody mornings transformed to warm sunny afternoons.

The new days light piercing through the foggy overlay, brightening to the birdsong harmonies.

The evening showers soothe the nerves lulled to ease by the peeper melodies.

New growth stirs underfoot & simultaneously bursting through the dank soul,

Ripe with new energy and fresh beginnings, burrowed deep in fallow soil & nourished by mysteries.

Pastels and neons and coy shades of spring dapple the fields & woodlands welcoming curiosities.

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us her

All simply in the springn of the year

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard chite,

Like nothings else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bee,

The swarm filating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The metoer that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in id-air stands still.

For this is lobe and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for (so) above

To sanctify to what far ends {it} will,

But which it only needs that we fulfill.

-Robert Frost

SIlybum marianum : milk thistle, tonifying liver elixir

Fulfill your heart. Your joy. Your mind. Your gratitude. Your curiosity. Your presence. Your soul. This season, all seasons, every season. Take it day by day and see what unfolds. Ever growing and spiraling, weaving new quilts with past threads. Remember to love, explore, breathe, wonder and play. Delight in the beauty and magic that surrounds us. That we’re a part of. It’s all around you. Go out and enjoy it. It’s all waiting for you there.

~❦*A-S

03.20.2020

*Oxalis stricta : tasty yellow wood sorrel.* .it’s all there.if only you look*

dainty woodland Puschkinia scilloides : striped squill, hiding in the forest underleaf as springtime gems…

Who made the day?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean —

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die, at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

~The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

…

~❦*A-S

03.20.2020

…

Narcissus pseudonarcissus : Daffodil

We hope to see you in the Garden!

~❦*A-S

03.20.2020

::.*~> emersoncentral.com/ebook/nature.pdf <3*.::}

From the Instagram archives: May 20, 2020

The forsythias, early magnolias, hyacinths, & Primulas have made their march o’blooms & set the tune for spring’s ever cycling melodies.

The harmonies of wisteria & peonies, Schisandra & silver bells, are ringing their final notes passing along the symphony.

Somewhere in between the Viburnums, Packyra, Geraniums & fleabanes started their arioso weave to complete the round.

Each blooming piece playing an essential role, taking their turn to twirl in their thread, unfurling the breathtaking, infinite tapestry they all create together. For the beauty, well being, & soul nourishment of all.

Cyclical & in harmony, forever the same concert, orchestrated in slightly different tunes to weave a single symphony, arousing the coy joy of spring in all.

May we continue to be present, witness the magic, & encompass these lessons from nature as the turns continue…

We are so looking forward to when we can have volunteers & visitors in the garden again. The garden is longing for the people’s love & admiration, as are we to share it’s magic with you. The urge to pass on plant passion & knowledge is ever a flame, but not so much the urge to sit & type of it; conversation/in-person connection is the favored way to share:). Alas Spring has won the tug-of-urge game, hypnotizing us with its fleeting symphony, whisping us away in whimsy from modern distractions and back to the source. Where nurturing, reciprocity, & gratitude lead the tune. Pruning, seeding, weeding, mulching, & planting have blissfully consumed our time with spring’s ephemeral timelessness. We hope you’re taking time to take in nature’s magic, & maybe give a little back.

Bursting blossoms, spring serenity, & May Day magic to you all
.
*❦A-S & the GFG team

Ma͏y 31, 2020

from the instagram archives

𝙳𝚞𝚜𝚔 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗

The flighty breeze of spring is moving on in singsong as summer sweeps in.

We are so looking forward to the bursts & blossoms of high sun summertime.

May the light kiss your shadows and the clouds cool your souls. To the season of abundance

variegated willow and mullein about to sun burst

We have been busy bees and are so looking forward to seeing you in the garden soon

Check the ‘Tours and Workshops’ tab at the top of the page for the events calendar!

Warm breeze & honey bees to you dear friends,

*❦A-S & the Green Farmacy Garden team

from the Instagram archives June 26, 2020

The heat of the summer is felt as the rising sun is lengthening. Peaceful energy and organized chaos amidst harmonies of every color essential.

Natives & medicinals & ornamentals all weaving their thread into the tapestry of the garden. Nature ever entangling.

The mating hawk calls & early peppers have given way to the wood frogs & night chorus.

The coy pastels of spring have been shaded into the sultry hues of summer. Deep purples among frilly pinks and vibrant reds. Beckoning the care of pollinators below the bursting of green.

Pond life is stirring and humming, predators & prey rippling together flowing in the same stream.

The gardens and wild places are putting on their best palettes. Adorn the world with your gifts, and add your own brush stroke to the painting.

As the sun warms your soul may the cool breeze kiss your cheeks & the fresh water tickle your toes.
Breathe & Indulge in summer’s comings

*❦A-S
with the Green Farmacy Garden team

from the Instagram archives: August 27, 2020

Today’s project: recycling labels for the next generation of annuals.

We’ll be experimenting this year with more fall-sowing than usual, hoping to ease a bit of the springtime crunch by getting some seeds in ahead of the winter.

After washing all the labels we’d already collected, I headed out to sweep the garden for any more. This Eastern Ratsnake and I both stopped short when our paths intersected at the path around the Cancer Plot. I ran to grab my camera and when I came back, the roughly 6ft. long snake was moving fast through Holding Plot and into Aphrodisia.

Continuing my sweep for labels, I noticed this Echinacea blooming, but with the telltale green growths on its face indicating infection with Aster Yellows — a bacterial infection that’s been plaguing our Echinacea since at least last year.

We’ve already pulled over a dozen plants this season, because plants infected with [the phytoplasma(s?) that cause] Aster Yellows do not recover.

Completing my circuit of the garden, I encountered some friends blooming: Tagetes minuta (Southern Cone Marigold, says Wikipedia) native to the southern half of South America, and Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativa), famous as the source of the sublime, expensive spice saffron (threads of which are the stigma and styles of the flower!);

the pond sitting low, due to the long dry spells of late;

and this bright orange fruit startled me into checking on the other tangerines, all of which are still quite behind this early-ripening fallen fruit!

All in all, a lovely day in the garden.

Put me in the mood for a blast from my past: here’s Chicane’s “Autumn Tactics” that I used to listen to back in grad school!

Our remaining events this month are all nearly full but you may be able to snag the last spot for this weekend’s Herbal Giving or Volunteer Day or if you act fast! (Don’t worry though, we’ve got a liiittle bit more of everything on deck for early November: check back for a public tour, Fire Cider workshop, and more Herbal Giving and Volunteer opportunities, to be published soon)

I hope you’re all enjoying this incredible day in this gift of a season!
Thanks for checking in!
-Veri

9 HAWKS graced my commute back to the garden this morning!! The first 4 in pairs: two playing just above the street at about overpass height, and the other two perched in neighboring trees even closer to the ground. Most of the rest were perched high in trees, or flying higher. Our resident hawk was screeching from the bamboo grove here at the garden when we visited C terrace to support the juniper, who’d dived downhill with one of the winter’s heavy snow or ice loads. Unfortunately I don’t know our Maryland species well enough to identify today’s, but every one of them makes my heart leap nonetheless. What a spectacular season opener it’s been!

Snowdrops, hellebores, and Giant Butterbur are blooming or budding all over – we’ll get you some pictures soon!

Today, I wanted to be sure to share our 2020 Annual Report with everyone. This season, you can expect more new offerings for children, an introduction to Botany by plant family series, in-depth with Invasives, and dining with (/on?!) cicadas, as our Herbal Giving, public tours, and volunteer days continue with everyone’s safety in mind. We’re opening our gates to high schoolers needing community service hours (send em our way if you’ve got em!), and you’ll also be hearing more about our initiative to diversify the traditions and lineage-keepers represented in our collection and programming.

Please reach out if you have any questions about upcoming programming, pandemic or other policies, or booking a private tour. We’re currently planning the children’s events, so if you have feedback or requests for what you’d like to see, let us know ASAP!

With warm screeching excitement, we look forward to welcoming you in the garden soon!

-Veri

Download the whole report here! or below:

The Hellebores have been blooming since late January, & the snowdrops not far behind bursting through the snow the first week of February.

Last week the crocuses bejeweled the grounds, more than we’ve ever been blessed with before, heralding the true coming of spring.
In the woods we were delighted to find the dazzling winter aconites brightening up the brown landscape down by the creek.

The birdsong is growing evermore as the days are lengthening. Last week the first bluebird families were spotted in the garden from the small gazebo under the Ginkgo tree.
The pond has thawed for likely the last time, & we are anxiously awaiting the return of the pond choir.

The sunlight is lengthening as the pace of the garden is quickening. Seeds are being sown, plots cleaned & mulched, and more new sprouts are welcomed back each day.

We look forward to hosting you for (socially distanced & limited capacity) tours, workshops & volunteer days, so stay tuned in the coming weeks for event listings!

May the reawakening of the Earth inspire you to explore the beauty & magic blooming all around us.

.
*❦A-S & the GFG team

The many faces of hellebore

The Green Farmacy Garden is seeking 1 or 2 part-time interns for the 2021 season to help harvest, process, and transform plants into herbal medicine for the community! The chosen applicant(s) will exchange 5 hours of work per week for mentorship and/or college internship credits.

Find more information, and the application link, at our Work With Us! page. Applications accepted until March 19, 2021.