Southwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 112 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness

by John Slattery

Overview

Wildcraft your way to wellness!

In Southwest Medicinal Plants, John Slattery is your trusted guide to finding, identifying, harvesting, and using 112 of the region’s most powerful wild plants. You’ll learn how to safely and ethically forage, and how to use wild plants in herbal medicines including teas, tinctures, and salves. Plant profiles include clear, color photographs, identification tips, medicinal uses and herbal preparations, and harvesting suggestions. Lists of what to forage for each season makes the guide useful year-round.

Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers, naturalists, and herbalists in Arizona, southern California, southern Colorado, southern Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, western and central Texas, and southern Utah.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604699821
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/04/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Slattery is a bioregional herbalist, educator, and forager who is passionate about helping people develop deep and meaningful relationships with wild plants. Visit him at johnjslattery.com.

Table of Contents

Preface 8

Introduction 11

Wildharvesting with the Seasons 43

Medicinal Plants of the Southwest 57

Agrimony 58

Alder 60

Algerita 62

American licorice 66

Anemone 68

Arizona cypress 71

Ash 74

Aspen 76

Beebalm 79

Bermudagrass 82

Betony 85

Blazing star 88

Bricklebush 90

Brittlebush 92

Buttonbush 94

California poppy 96

Camphorweed 98

Canyon bursage 101

Cáscara sagrada 104

Cháste tree 107

Chia 110

Chickweed 113

Chokecherry 116

Cholla 119

Cleavers 123

Copperleaf 126

Cottonwood 129

Cow parsnip 132

Cranesbill 135

Creosote bush 138

Cudweed 142

Curly dock 145

Dandelion 148

Desert cotton 150

Desert willow 156

Echinacea 159

Elder 162

Estafiate 165

Evening primrose 168

Fanpetals 170

Figwort 173

Filaree 176

Fireweed 179

Flor de tierra 181

Globemallow 184

Goatbush 187

Goldenrod 190

Golden smoke 192

Gumweed 195

Hackberry 197

Hawthorn 200

Hopbush 204

Hop tree 207

Horsetail 210

Horseweed 213

Inmortál 216

Jojoba 219

Juniper 222

Kidneywood 225

Iobelia 227

Mallow 229

Manzanita 232

Mexican palo verde 235

Mock vervain 238

Monkey flower 240

Mormon tea 242

Mulberry 245

Mullein 248

Nettle 251

Oat 255

Ocotillo 258

Oreganillo 262

Oshá 264

Oxeye daisy 268

Passionflower 270

Pearly everlasting 273

Pecan 275

Pine 278

Plantain 281

Prickly ash 284

Prickly pear 288

Prickly poppy 292

Puncture vine 296

Queen's root 299

Red root 302

Rhatany 306

Rosemary mint 309

Sage 311

Self-heal 313

Shepherd's purse 315

Siberian elm 317

Silk tassel 320

Skullcap 323

Snakeweed 325

Sow thistle 327

Spikenard 329

Sweet clover 332

Thistle 335

Tickseed 338

Tree of heaven 341

Violet 344

Walnut 347

Wild buckwheat 350

Wild mint 353

Wild oregano 355

Wild tobacco 359

Willow 362

Yarrow 365

Yerba mansa 368

Yerba santa 372

Yucca 375

Metric Conversions 379

References 380

Index 382

Editorial Reviews

01/20/2020

In this information-rich but somewhat nebulous field guide, herbalist Slattery (Southwest Foraging) offers a combination of technical expertise and personal musings. Emphasizing that “there are no absolutes” in plant science, Slattery encourages “developing one’s senses one’s true knowledge through the direct and discerning experience of Nature herself.” He touches on tools needed for harvesting plants and gives brief, generalized descriptions of how to process and store them for use in poultices, water extractions, infusions, tinctures, syrups, and salves. He also covers his work’s spiritual side, informing fellow foragers that “you should always offer your gratitude” to the plants. The alphabetized plant profiles (listed by common name, along with their scientific binomial)—which cite chief characteristics, location (in such varied terrain as deserts, high plains, and prairies), medicinal applications, and a few preparation suggestions—include the California poppy, used to help teething babies, and echinacea, “traditionally used for snakebite.” Slattery brings an impressive authority to this work, but its woozier passages may restrict its readership to those who share the author’s New Age–tinged perspective. 287 color photos. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

No one has advanced wild foraging in the desert Southwest as much as John Slattery. His plant knowledge, ethics, and practices are becoming more relevant, if not necessary, for our collective survival.” —Gary Paul Nabahn, director, Center for Regional Food Studies, University of Arizona
 
“A wonderful guide that will diversify our diets and lure us into the natural world.” —Brad Lancaster, cofounder of DesertHarvesters.org
 
“A must-have on the subject! Eloquent and replete with scientific acumen and stunning photos, this guide is a treasure.” —Carolyn Niethammer, author of Cooking the Wild Southwest

“Impressive.” —Publishers Weekly 

From the Publisher