Hawthorn and Cow Parsnip
I have always been unclear about what i’ve wanted to do with a web page. I created one about two years prior and never updated it again. I have had concerns about a web page a definitive document about who i am, containing writings that i may or may not agree with in the near future. I have also had concerns about the fact that a web page is more or less a public document, and am unclear about what i want to share about my friends (and what they would be okay with me sharing) and private life with the world (not that many people are looking anyway, right?). Further, i already spend a lot of time writing, so i thought that perhaps writing here would delude things more, and creative writing on my computer has never particularly appealed to me.
Anyway. I’ve decided to try again. Blog technology seems to have streamlined the process to the point where i don’t have to worry about coding HTML and understand the nuances of technology to get started (just as i use a car to find my loved ones yet don’t have a sophisticated understanding of how it functions). Now, i can just focus on writing. With that said, I’ve decided to set some goals for this undertaking:
- To create a virtual fertilization ground for projects and ideas that i will most likely want to pursue in a more definitive form elsewhere.
- To provide practical information that will be useful for friends and others outside of my social circle.
My friend Whoosie and i went camping on Salmon Creek, near Oakridge, Oregon. Whoosie has a really cool web site called Glean the Planet, which is basically a web board for sharing food. Lately i have become curious about this process of ‘democratizing the web’ or what Noël Sturgeon recently called “globalization from below.” Whoosie’s site is not exactly rolling in the visitors yet, but i do feel like there is a lot of potential in the idea.
During our camping trip i brought a copy of herbalist Michael Moore’s “Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West” and Lee Allen Peterson’s “A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants” Both Whoosie and i agreed that field guides are necessary, yet counterintuitive methods for relearning knowledge that civilized humans have been deprived of. As the result of using them, my knowledge of medicinal/edible wild plants has increased immensely. But often, i feel that no matter what the diagram and description, i still having trouble identifying them. Or, i’ll see something and it will vaguely remind me of something, but
I thought that it would be really cool to provide a more local field guide. Rather than “Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West,” it would be something more like “Medicinal and Edible Plants of Eugene, OR” with pictures and directions. I have inspired about projects such as Urban Scout’s city rewilding or the editable web site REWILD.info. Since i’ve mostly been around Eugene lately, i want to talk about two species. One i am aware of and need further information about.
The first is Crataegus laevigata or English Hawthorn. More specifically, this cultivar is called “Paul’s Scarlet” Hawthorn. It took me awhile to identify the particular variety (i finally found information on the Oregon State University web site). These trees grow all over town, eventually fruiting into berries that are both medicinal and edible. Hawthorn is good heart medicine. You can find hawthorn berries in most health food stores around town. What seems to be lesser known is that the leaves and blossoms are also medicinal. Whoosie and i gathered some and made folk tinctures of both. All are great circulation and heart medicine. I would like to add some more about the medicinal properties, but right now my books are propping up the power cord for my computer and i am low on battery. The particular trees i took pictures of (i know some are sideways, it’s an annoying problem with the picture editor i am using; the changes do not seem to take effect) are between Hilyard and Ferry Street and East 31st Avenue. However, I’ve seen them lining street sides all over town. There are a lot of great big ones on Alder Street, past East 25th and above.
The second plant has been perpetually frustrating me. The common name is Cow Parsnip, the Latin name either Heracleum maximum or Heracleum lanatum and I am aware that it was a stable food of the Calapooya, the indigenous people of the area. The stems and leaf stalks are edible, and the leaves and root are medicinal. I have also heard the leaves can be burned and used as a salt-like seasoning. However, here is my problem: I have been unable to definitively determine whether the plant I believe to be Cow Parsnip, or even Cow Parsnip itself, it not poisonous. The web and field guides have both been dreadfully incomplete and confusing. For instance, some of the first Google searches for the term Cow Parsnip associate it with, or warn to distinguish it from Hogweed, or Giant Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) which supposedly can cause dermatitis or severe skin irritations. And this plant is supposedly edible? To make matters worse, there’s the potential confusion of the plant with the uper-poisionous Poison and Water Hemlocks, which I feel that I have a good grasp, but not definitive grasp, on identifying (however, I suspect that due to my fear of the plant I may over-identify many plants as these).
For what it’s worth, here are the pictures of one such plant I believe to be Cow Parsnip.
I took these during my last day in Eugene, near the Willamette River bike path while on a bike ride with my friend Phoenix. We found what looked to be like young shoots of Queen Anne’s Lace, or Wild Carrot (Daucus carota). I am looking forward to the day when I can definitively identify and distinguish between Cow Parsnip, the Hemlocks, Fools Parsley, and Queen Anne’s Lace. On this day, I will feel more empowered, wild, and free. One definition of wildness I’ve liked is that it is the ‘ability to survive on one’s own.’ I do not take this to mean survive independently from life itself, but rather, to survive away from civilized, domesticated food sources and means of meeting my basic needs. Anyone care to help?
Hey Cricket – Thanks for this. I had no idea that Hawthorn came in scarlet. Of course, until a year ago, I had no idea it had medicinal properties or edible berries, either. We have forgotten so much.
I wanted to chime in on the cow parsnip question. The pics you took are certainly cow parsnip. It is abundant and beautiful right now on the hillsides where I live. Giant hogweed really is giant – 10 feet tall or more in many cases, whereas cow parsnip is big, but not THAT big. In this region, wild carrot is commonly found in the same areas as the cow parsnip, but it blooms much later and tends toward drier soils. Being of more modest size, it does not compete as well with the lush growth found in most of our streamside habitats.
Wild carrot is more easily confused with yarrow until you get close enough to examine the foliage. By the time it starts to cover the dry hillsides west of Eugene with its lacy white flower clusters, the cow parsnip will have long since faded in most cases.
I agree with you that having a localized plant guide would be wonderful. Maybe a wiki project? When you are back in town, we should go to Armitage Park along the McKenzie River, where there are some large, beautiful stands of nettle – urtica dioica – right along the paths.
One way that I learned how to identify “Cow Parsnip” or what we call “Indian Celery” is by the stalk.
Cow Parsnip has a hollow stem, and the poisonous variety has grid like structures within the stalk. You can see the difference when sliced open. My mom said as children they used to eat the “Indian Celery” in the early Spring. Any later, it was poisonous her mom told her.
I am Chilcotin Indian, Native of the Plateau of British Columbia. This particular plant has been in our family harvest for a hundred years or more.