Plantain
Plantago major
Leaf · cooling · soothing
The path-side leaf chewed for bee stings and brewed for raw tissue.
In the mouth
How it tastes
Green, slightly bitter and mushroomy. Quiet.
Traditional use
Not the banana. Broadleaf plantain was the traveler’s spit-poulice for bites and the cup for a scraped throat or gut. A humble water plant — drawing, cooling, and kind to membranes.
In the cup
Fresh leaf bruised for a poultice. Dried leaf, 1 tsp, steeped 10 minutes for tea. Young leaves can be cooked as a green.
Blood
Salty blood · salt
Salt is cooling and barely a taste. These plants dry first, then move fluid — and water follows. They are mineral salts, not table salt: building, coating to sensitive membranes, thinning stuck mucous, supporting kidneys and the kreb-cycle minerals of muscle and nerve.
Read salty bloodReached for
The promise
A careful hand
Ordinary tea for a healthy adult.
Identify carefully — many lawn plants share the name in casual speech. Avoid sprayed ground.
Read the whole promiseSits well with
Calendula
Calendula officinalis
Pot marigold — the gardener’s skin flower, also a golden broth.
Irritable skin · Sore throat
Ground, build, and settle
Marshmallow
Althaea officinalis
The original marsh mallow — a slick coat for dry tissue.
Sore throat · Cough · Dryness
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Nettle
Urtica dioica
A green salt — the mineral broth of the hedgerow.
Stiff joints · Hollow energy · Irritable skin
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Traditional kitchen and folk use only. This is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are pregnant, nursing, on medicine, or unwell, ask a clinician before drinking anything as a remedy.