Boston Flora

Tag: Medicinal Plants

  • Sunday, June 9, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Medicinal (and Edible) Plant Walk

    Join local herbalist and arborist Alex Klein on June 9 for a walk around New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill to discover the bounty of medicinal plants, both those grown in the garden and those sprouting up of their own accord as weeds or forest understory. You may be surprised to find just how many useful medicinal herbs are common to our local landscape. While on the walk we will discuss basic identification techniques so you can become familiar with some common and useful medicinal plants. We’ll also cover historic and modern uses of these herbs, the spectrum between poison, medicine, and food, how to harvest ethically and safely, and how to process and use some of these plants for home healing.

    Come prepared to walk around the gardens including on stone and dirt paths. Instructor Alex Klein describes himself as an intermediary between people and plants. After beginning his work as a landscaper in Boston and New York, his desire to connect to nature more meaningfully changed his perspective on plants from something mostly aesthetic to something directly useful to him and the people around him. Alex has since botanized and wildcrafted up and down the East Coast, getting to know well the flora of the region, as well as the historical and modern uses of hundreds of food and medicine plants. Along the way, he trained as a clinical herbalist at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine and the Ithaca Free Clinic. His passion for herbal medicine led him to do herbal First Aid, volunteering his time at Asheville Street Feet, a free Foot Clinic for those in need, and at various wilderness gatherings. Alex currently practices as an herbalist in Boston, striving to use only plants he has gathered himself or grown in his garden. For his day job, Alex is an Arborist at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown.

    $40 for NEBG members, $55 for nonmembers. Register at www.nebg.org

  • Thursday, March 12, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Native Edibles and Herbals

    Whether you are interested in healthy, novel, or unusual foods, or are simply interested in applying botany to your everyday life, this New England Wild Flower Society class will enhance your knowledge of native edibles and herbals. From cucumber root to Oswego tea, wild edibles and medicinal plants are everywhere. In this program, students will learn how to recognize and utilize them. Dan Jaffe and Anna Fialkoff will address safe and sustainable best practices as they explore common, rare, and threatened species for forage and cultivation. The class will be held at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on Thursday, March 12, from 10 – 12, and is $26 for NEWFS members, $32 for nonmembers. Register on line at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/native-edibles-and-herbals. Picture from www.earthworkprograms.com.

  • Mondays, February 8, 22, and March 1, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Landscaping with Native Plants

    Join Michael Lance, owner and designer with Wild Regeneration, at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on three Mondays, February 8, February 22, and March 1, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, for this native plant design class.  Gardeners, smitten by a display of natives at a garden center, erroneously infer all sorts of attributes from the word “native,”such as “hardy,”“resilient,”“tough,”or even “better.”All of these traits may indeed apply to any native plant; however, this is dependent on the conditions in which the plant is grown. For example, a tough native wetland plant won’t be resilient when planted along the hot, dry edge of a driveway. In this class with designer Michael Lance you will learn about native plants that would be most suitable to your garden site. Michael will present some of the plants that he incorporates when designing gardens for clients, with class sessions about native trees, shrubs, and perennials. He’ll emphasize edible and medicinal plants, trees and shrubs that exhibit ornamental characteristics, and perennials that can withstand and thrive in urban and suburban New England conditions. Throughout the class Michael will incorporate organic techniques and his philosophy for developing healthy and beneficial garden habitats.
    Fee $70 Arnold Arboretum member, $85 nonmember. To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    http://www.newfs.org/images/visit/visit%20crop%20GITW%20spring.jpg/image_preview

  • Sunday, November 8, 9 am – 4 pm – Natural History and Ethnobotony of Medicinal Plants

    Judith Sumner, Botanist and author of The Natural History of Medicinal Plants, will present a fascinating lecture on Sunday, November 8 beginning at 9 in the morning. Before the time of written records, early people used plants to relieve symptoms and cure disease, forming the basis of the modern study of ethnobotany and the starting point for the history of medicinal plants. During this one session intensive course on the history and current directions of medicinal botany, to be held at Garden in the Woods, we will track the knowledge of medicinal plants from prehistory through the spectacular work of the Renaissance herbalists, the Doctrine of Signatures, and the development of the European medical tradition. New World settlers carried the seeds of medicinal plants with them to North America, where European medical knowledge commingled with Native American lore. The class will consider herbal medicine in nineteenth century America, the field of zoopharmacognosy, and the current ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery. You will gain an understanding of human-plant interactions and botanical cures for human disease and the importance of preserving the diversity of medicinal plants.
    Fee $77 member of either the Arnold Arboretum of NEWFS, $91 nonmember
    Offered in collaboration with the New England Wild Flower Society. To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    Medicinal plant by Khor Hui Min.