This herb was a common treatment for any number of complaints in the late 19th century in the American countryside; check out the old-time recipe for a tea to throw off a cold. In West Virginia folk medicine, boneset was simmered with lemon and honey to make a cough syrup. The Eclectic physicians used it with success during the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. In modern herbalism, it is usually combined with elder and willow for fevers with aches, and with scullcap and milkweed for flu. In large amounts, boneset is an emetic and a purgative; wortcunning folk would harvest this herb by pulling up on the leaves for use as an emetic and down on the leaves for use as a purgative. Because it's a bitter, people have used it against malaria (parasites don't like bitters). Also known as common thoroughwort, Indian sage, ague weed, crosswort, wild sage, thorough wax, vegetable antimony, sweating weed, wild Isaac. Boneset is also a common name for comfrey in Europe, but that's a completely different plant, and boneset does NOT contain the toxic pyrrolizidine of comfrey. Top How to Grow Boneset This seed can germinate without cold stratification. It needs light to germinate, so sprinkle on wet planting medium and then firm in with gentle finger pressure. They will germinate faster and better after cold stratification. You can just plant them in the fall in a protected location (a flower pot with a screen over the top to keep out mice). This perennial gets 3-4ft/90-120cm high and 18-24in/45-60cm wide. It's perennial throughout much of North America, from zone 3 (-40F/-40C) to zone 9 (25F/-3C). It likes full sun and damp, rich soil. Flowers appear in the late summer and fall of the second year of growth. The fragrant off-white flowers attract all kinds of pollinators--bumblebees, butterflies, small bees, and flower wasps. Sparrows like the seeds. Some people find the hairs on the stem to be irritating. It will creep around underground by rhizome growth and form small colonies. It also reproduces by wind-blown seeds, but it very much prefers wet ground, so it doesn't usually go crazy in a lawn. Grazing animals usually won't eat it because it is bitter. This herb needs to be dried quickly once it is picked or it will rot. Top Botanical Tea (1940) Uncrossing
Bath
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Eupatorium perfoliatum
Uses in Witchcraft & Magic:
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