The tea is drunk as a
nervine and sedative, calming anxiety and relieving stress. Mad-dog and Hoary
skullcap varieties have both served as traditional medicinal plants.
This magic herb can grow all over North America. Likes most mints, it favors water
and can grow in swampy areas--or find it a place beneath your garden
hose faucet, where it can make use of the drippings. This bitter
mint has been used to ease the anxiety of withdrawing from
addictive substances, for migraine, PMS, difficult sleep, and
grief. Good tea for workaholics at the end of the day, for restoring
health after a bout with the flu, for people recovering from stroke,
for folks in the aftermath of a seizure, or for those who have endured
a spiritual or magical assault. Typical amount used for a tea is 1/2-1
teaspoon in one cup of boiling water, allowed to steep for 15 minutes;
then drink 1/2-1 cup. Or make a traditional tincture of 1 part herb to
5 parts brandy; a dose is then 30-50 drops in water. An excellent
addition to dream teas or against nightmares. Nice to combine with
hops, passionflower,
and/or wild lettuce for
insomnia, with vervain
for anxiety, and passionflower
for hyperactivity or with valerian
(although skullcap does not leave a hangover as valerian can). Some
people smoke this, but I am not sure how that would affect anything.
Rarely grazed on by mammals or fowl, but ring-necked pheasant like the
seeds. Scutellaria laterifloria is called "mad-dog" because
it was once believed to be a treatment for rabies. Scutellaria incana,
"Hoary" or "Downy" skullcap, which gets its name from
the tiny white hairs that grow on its square stem, is taller and showier
than the Mad-dog, with larger flowers that attract many pollinators, including
hummingbirds and bees. Both skullcap varieties are pollinated primarily
by bumblebees. Also known as Quaker bonnet, madweed.
|
Scutellaria lateriflora Restorative after
magical assault or trial © 2011, 2018 Harold A. Roth; No reproduction without permission |