Herbal Partners and Allies
Growing in field and garden, herbs are conscious beings that respond to gravity, temperature, sound and touch; and make decisions based on the information they learn. From plant journeys done by many people that are congruent across time and geography, it would seem they are also aware of us, and can communicate to us about themselves. I have experienced this.
The plants are here first to be themselves, and in being themselves they are gateways to dimensions of spirit or knowing that science cannot quantify, and so dismisses. They also offer themselves as food and medicine for birds and animals, including us. They hold more gifts for us than simply using this herb for that condition, and what they share with us is greater than the sum of their chemical parts. Consider their yearly cycles, their ecosystems, families, friends and companions as well as their herbal actions. They talk to us in many ways, if we know how to listen.
Plants are part of the community in which they live. They fill a niche in that community, sharing agreements with the other beings there about roles and the connections between them. Without their presence soil, shade, insects, animals – and we ourselves – would be impacted, and subtle connections would be missing. Please keep this in mind as you learn about the plants here. Walk softly as you gather and harvest; and be keenly aware of At-Risk and Endangered plants as you learn and befriend plants around you. You can learn more at United Plant Savers, here.
Oklahoma
and Nearby Regional Herbs
I share with you here herbs that I have used personally. In addition to more immersive study of the herbs from several sources, I have used them for myself, then clinically, for long enough to gain a sense of actions, variations of response and reactions to them. This Materia Medica especially features herbs that are native to the nine (some say ten!) bioregions of the State of Oklahoma. I'll try to note when any of these are aggressive. I will also include useful, and often overlooked highly medicinal garden herbs that were introduced by people of many cultures who settled here. (They brought them because they are medicinal, or to help to preserve food, or for their lovely aromatics, or all of these.) We have grown them for several hundred years now, and they are part of our culinary and medicinal culture. The bulk of them are Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, British and European. I may also include a very few medicinal herbs that are known to be invasive, and will note that they are. Please don't plant them, and avoid accidental seed transport, with attention to tools, kits, shoes and clothes.
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For simplicity, I use generally use USDA definitions for these, and the USDA range map for each herb. Please remember that these are human designations, and the discussion around them is contextual and nuanced, not black and white. Non-natives are not always harmful. Invasives, by definition, are, but the question is also, "Invasive where?) Bioregion has something to do with this. And please keep in mind that the plants themselves are moving in response to global warming. We will have much to learn from them as they do.
JM - Come back here https://uswildflowers.com/wfquery.php?State=OK