This time of year the foraging selection is slim.
The cornucopia of wild spring edibles are still a couple weeks away, so the focus during this season is on foraging wild plants for their medicinal benefits.
Almost all edible plants have been used throughout history as medicinals as well, including those plants native to the Northwest. The Forest Kindergarten kids and I are nibbling red cedar leaves to boost our immune systems, eating alder catkins for their protein content and munching the newly developing Douglas fir buds for a burst of vitamin C.
Learning how to safely forage for wild plants can save you from having to spend money on expensive herbal products or even pharmaceutical drugs.
One of the least known, and most potent, herbal medicine is the lichen.
Lichens are a unique life form that consist of a symbiotic relationship between a fungi and an algae. The fungus and alga have evolved together in such a way that an equilibrium exists: The fungus provides structural support and nutrients to the alga and a microenvironment for the algal cells to exist. The alga in turn provides carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis due to its chlorophyll.
Lichens are found almost everywhere in the world, from very hot deserts to cold, harsh alpine regions where hardly any other plants can grow. Lichens, when dry, have been known to survive temperatures of -196 C.
In these extreme environments, lichens may grow only a fraction of a millimeter per year and can reach several hundred years of age. Moisture is essential to the growth of lichens, since they’re like a sponge and absorb water over the entire surface of their body. When water is nonexistent, a lichen will become dormant and can stay so for several years, becoming capable of physiological function again when moisture is restored.
One of the most common and well known of the Northwest lichens grows in abundance on Vashon. Old Man’s Beard, also referred to as Usnea for its Latin genus name, grows draped from trees and disperses mostly by small pieces being carried on the wind to other localities. The fibers of Usnea were used by the Haida Native Americans to strain impurities from hot pitch before the pitch was used to treat wounds. The hair-like fibers were also used to decorate coyote masks.
All species of lichen are edible, in the category of “emergency food,” meaning it will sustain you but probably not taste too good.
Usnea is somewhat tasteless but is a potent antibiotic, proven by rigorous scientific studies. Usnea is currently prescribed by herbalists and naturopaths for treating bacterial infections.
According to the book “Herbal Antibiotic: Usnea,” World War II researchers discovered that more than half the lichen species tested contained compounds effective “against gram positive bacteria, including Streptococcus, Staphyloccus and Pneumonococcus.”
Our forests on Vashon are literally draped in medicinal plants. To the trained eye, there is always something that is in season to forage, either for eating or making into herbal medicines. Knowing how to safely partake in the cornucopia of wild plants that grow right here on our Island can be exciting and empowering.
— Erin Kenny is director of Cedarsong Nature School. For more information, visit www.cedarsongnatureschool.org.
