CELEBRATING Medicinal Plants
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CELEBRATING Medicinal Plants GARDENS AN ELEVATED APOTHECARY This September, we’re celebrating the past, present, and future of medicinal plants. Simone Leigh’s Brick House, the first High Line Plinth commission, inspired the month’s theme. Leigh’s 16-foot-tall bust of a Black woman reminds us that resiliency requires community and self-care—and medicinal plants often contribute to these essentials. We’ve highlighted 20 plants from our gardens—both individual species and entire genera—with rich historic and social relevance for our communities. Across generations and regions, plants have offered sustenance to our survival. Read on to learn more about these health-helpful plants in our gardens. And, use this guide as you walk along the High Line—there are informational signs along the way to help you identify the plants and learn about their use in herbal medicine. Celebrating Medicinal Plants is made possible, in part, by the support of TD Bank, the Presenting Green Sponsor of the High Line. 01 WHAT IS PLANT MEDICINE?* Every time you drink chamomile tea before bed, mint tea when your stomach hurts, or when you wash your hair with tea tree oil, you’re practicing herbal medicine. The use of herbs for health dates Some of their important medicines The theory states that a plant treats The most common and simplest back to the Paleolithic era, over can be found on the High Line— the ailment that it resembles— way to take an herbal remedy is in 60,000 years ago. The first written such as sumac, eastern red cedar, bloodroot was thought to treat its distilled and steeped form: a tea. evidence of herbal medicine dates and cattail. blood disorders, for example. But However, there are many herbs that to the Sumerian culture in 3,500 it was wildly wrong and dangerous, cannot be taken internally without and c. 3,000 BCE. The Great Plains tribes constructed triggering many ill-prescribed deaths medical supervision, or that work best Medicine Wheel gardens in or further exacerbated illnesses. topically. These are taken as a salve, The first recorded physic garden— concentric circles with four lines or an ointment made from mixing the a garden of medicinal plants for of stones (or cairns) representing The FDA still doesn’t acknowledge herbs in oil to rub on the skin, a poultice, botanical study—dates to the north, south, east, and west that the effects of herbs on certain or when the macerated herbs and their sovereignty of Charlemagne— created pie-shaped planting beds. ailments but this stigma seems to liquids are applied directly to the skin, the king of the Franks and Lombards, These medicinal gardens played be lifting in the United States, as and as aromatherapy. and emperor of Rome in the late a specific spiritual role for native we see with the plethora of herbal 700s to early 800s CE. healing practices and were imbued teas available in our grocery stores, *While most herbs prescribed today with symbolism. Some tribes planted rising interest in aromatherapy, and are safe, it’s important to become Some early physic gardens include only medicinal or spiritual plants inclusion of plants in many of our an informed patient and to consult Pope Nicholas V’s Vatican medicinal while others included culinary and household products like cleaners a professional. Counterindications garden from 1447; Matthaeus ornamental species as well. Each and soaps. In Asia, statistics show vary based on the individual. Silvaticus’ gardens in Venice and garden was personalized to the tribe, that 80% of the population uses Salerna in 1334; Cosimo Medici’s and the contents mirrored the spirit herbs as some sort of remedy. garden in Pisa in 1544 (which was of the people. Around the world, and across codirected with Luca Ghini, the first cultures, the practice of herbal botanist to create an herbarium for In part because of the practices’ medicine is long lasting. plant and seed study, as well as the first roots in Native American and Black botanical garden in Europe); and Henry culture, and women’s healing, herbal IV’s 1593 garden in Montpelier, France. medicine is wrapped up in a history of In 1801, David Hosack created the social oppression—through politically Elgin Botanic Garden, the first public motivated accounts of healing herbs botanical garden in New York City as witchcraft or “snake oil.” where Rockefeller Center now stands. The Renaissance “medical However, herbal medicine in New revolutionary” Paracelsus popularized York and North America goes back the Doctrine of Signatures, which much further. Plant medicine was remained a principle of herbalism embedded in the lives of the native for centuries—to the detriment Find our selected medicinal plants on the following pages. Manhattan tribe, the Lenape. of many patients. Please leave the plants on the High Line in place. 02 03 Mugwort Yarrow Artemisia vulgaris Asteraceae LOCATION: Interim Walkway LOCATION: Meadow Walk, Eastern Rail Yards HISTORY & USE: Named for the Greek moon god, Artemisia was the top medie- HISTORY & USE: Known among European val ward against evil spirits. Legend says herbalists as the “master of the blood,” that Roman soldiers placed mugwort in and in New Mexico as plumajillo (Span- their sandals to prevent exhaustion; John ish for “little feather”), yarrow has been the Baptist supposedly wore a mugwort applied since antiquity to stop the flow of girdle to protect him on his journeys. blood from wounds. In classical Greece, Homer recounts the centaur Chiron, Indigenous North American peoples who passed on herbal secrets to his prized mugwort as a bitter tea taken to students—including the warrior Achilles, treat colds and fevers, and applied as who used yarrow on the battlegrounds salves to treat bruises, sores, itching, and of Troy for protection. This is the figure body odor. It was also believed to regu- who lends this mighty plant remedy its late menstrual cycles, help with delivery, scientific name. and induce abortions, giving the plant its nickname, “women’s sage.” The Navajo used yarrow for toothaches, the Pawnee and Miwok for general Today, it’s taken by interested sleepers to pain relief, the Cherokee for reducing induce lucid dreaming. fevers, and Ojibwe for headache and in Pollinators love this plant spiritual ceremonies. Herbalists today use yarrow to break fevers, improve circulation, and reduce Wild ginger heavy menstrual bleeding. Asarum canadense Pollinators love this plant LOCATION: Meadow Walk, Philip A. and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover HISTORY & USE: European settlers to the Birch Americas learned many medicinal herbal Betulaceae techniques by observing Native Amer- LOCATION: Gansevoort Woodlands, icans. Meriwether Lewis applied wild Chelsea Grasslands, Chelsea Thicket, ginger to treat skin inflammations on Wildflower Field & Radial Plantings his famous exploration of the Louisiana territory in 1806 after witnessing this use HISTORY & USE: Whether taken as a tea or among the local tribes. decoction—birch is an excellent tonic and detoxifier, mainly beneficial for remov- Other tribes ingested infusions of wild ing waste from the urinary system, as ginger to spur menstruation, induce in kidney or bladder stones and gout. It sweat to break a fever, alleviate earaches, reduces fluid retention and swellings, and and regulate heartbeats. the vernal sap is a diuretic. Today, people everywhere use ginger to Birch wood has been used for centu- treat intestinal complaints like stomach ries to relax muscles, and is still used in aches, cramps, and indigestion. many saunas today, especially through- out Russia. Birch sap makes a thirst-quenching addi- Notes tion to wine, beer, and spirits. 05 Coneflower Eastern red cedar *† Echinacea Juniperus virginiana LOCATION: Washington Grasslands, LOCATION: Chelsea Thicket, 23rd Street Hudson River Overlook Full list of loca- Seating Steps, Wildflower Field. Full list tions on pg 14. of locations on pg 14. HISTORY & USE: Echinacea may just be HISTORY & USE: Many eastern Native Amer- the face of contemporary herbal medi- icans, including the Lenape, smudged cine. Professional herbalists, amateur with red cedar in cleansing ceremo- practitioners, and skeptics alike use this nies for spaces, objects, and people. spiky and sunny flower as a precaution- Native-Hispanic traditions used the tree ary measure against the common cold. for their cleansings, called limpias. The Cheyenne and Kiowa used the Eastern red cedar is now mostly used as “hedgehog plant” for sore throats, the aromatherapy for nightmares and anxi- Pawnee for headaches, and the Lakota ety because of its strengthening and as a pain medication—for both humans comforting smell. and horses. This healing herb was taken The bark and twigs provide a pleasant as a fresh juice, smoke, or chewed to cinnamon-like flavor to any herbal blend. activate its healing properties. * A key Lenape plant remedy In the late 1800s, Eclectic Medicine † Those with kidney issues should avoid practitioners in the United States widely Eastern red cedar. exalted Echinacea—it quickly became their number one prescribed herb. Pollinators love this plant Mint Lamiaceae LOCATION: Washington Grasslands, Witchhazel * Chelsea Grasslands, Wildflower Field Hamamelidaceae Full list of locations on pg 14. LOCATION: Washington Grasslands, HISTORY & USE: The name “mint” derives Chelsea Thicket, Eastern Rail Yards from the Greek dyad Minthe, lover of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. HISTORY & USE: The “witch” in witchhazel From her death sprang the pernicious stems from the Old English wice, meaninig groundcover we now know as mint. “pliant” or “bendable.” In fact, the plants’ twigs were once used as divining rods. As aromatherapy, mint oil alleviates nausea, relaxes the nerves, treats Witchhazel is most effective as a tincture headaches by shrinking inflammation, (an extract of the plant that is dissolved improves circulation, and increases in ethanol, forming a concentrated liquid energy. It’s also used topically as an form of the plant).