Medicinal/Spiritual Use

Plant Name Medicinal & Spiritual Food Material Vine maple n/a n/a Wood used to make snowshoe Acer circinatum frames, drum hoops & dishes. Beaked hazelnut n/a Hazelnuts were a favourite, Long, flexible shoots twisted Corylus cornuta var. eaten both raw & roasted. into rope. californica Black gooseberry Believed to have protective Berries eaten. Sometimes n/a Ribes lacustre powers for warding off evil. boiled & eaten with grease. Black twinberry Twigs used for digestive tract n/a Berries used by Quileute & Lonicera involucrata problems & as contraceptives. Kwakwaka’wakw as pigment Evergreen huckleberry n/a Berries eaten fresh, with oil, or n/a Vaccinium ovatum dried into cakes. Indian-plum Chewed twigs applied to sores. Berries eaten fresh, cooked or n/a Oemleria cerasiformis dried. Mock-orange n/a n/a Wood used to make bows, Philadelphus lewisii arrows & knitting needles. Nootka rose Branches & leaves used to treat Outer rind eaten, young shoots n/a Rosa nutkana sore eyes & cataracts. Chewed peeled & eaten, leaves used to leaves applied to bee stings. Ripe flavour food cooked in cedar- hips for diarrhea. root baskets. Oceanspray Tea drunk as blood tonic. n/a Wood used to make digging Holodiscus discolor Fruiting clusters used to treat sticks, spears, bows, arrows, chickenpox & measles. harpoon shafts & hooks. Pacific ninebark Purgatives prepared by Salish, n/a Wood used to make children’s Physocarpus capitatus Nuxalt & Kwakwaka’wakw. bows & knitting needles. Red elderberry n/a Berries pressed into cakes & n/a Sambucus racemosa ssp. stored in cedar boxes. Today, pubens made into jam, jelly or wine. Red huckleberry Preparation, using leaves & bark, Berries eaten fresh, mashed into Berries used as fish bait in Vaccinium parvifolium gargled for sore throats. cakes or smoke-dried. streams. Saskatoon n/a Berries dried into cakes for Wood used for arrows, digging Amelanchier alnifolia storage. sticks & drying racks. Soapberry n/a Berries still widely used to n/a Shepherdia canadensis make Indian ice cream. Tall Oregon-grape Bark & berries to treat liver, gall Berries eaten. Today, made into Shredded stem & root bark made Mahonia aquifolium bladder & eye problems. jam, jelly or wine. yellow dye. Orange honeysuckle n/a Saanich children sucked the Stems used for weaving, binding Lonicera ciliosa sweet nectaries. & lashing. Trailing blackberry Coast Salish purification rite Tea made with dried leaves, n/a Rubus ursinus involves scrubbing stems across which were best collected in the one’s body before spirit dancing. Fall when they turn red. Berries Leaves & roots used to treat eaten fresh or dried. cholera, dysentry & excessive menstruation. Cow-parsnip n/a Stalks peeled & eaten raw or n/a Heracleum lanatum boiled, dipped in grease. Goat’s beard Roots used by Tlingit to cure n/a n/a Aruncus dioicus blood diseases, by Nuxalt to treat stomach pains & small-pox, by Kwakwak’wakw as cough medicine & by pregnant Squamish women. Large-leaved lupine n/a Kwakwaka’wakw, Haida & n/a Lupinus polyphyllus Nuxalk roasted the rhizomes. Nodding onion n/a Bulbs eaten fresh, steamed with n/a Allium cernuum alder & pine boughs, dried on mats or pressed into thin cakes. Red columbine Quileute smeared leaf & root pulp n/a n/a Aquilegia formosa on sores to form scars. Skunk cabbage The Squamish ate the steamed Used, roasted or steamed, as Leaves lined berry baskets & Lysichiton americanum roots as medicine. famine food in early spring. steaming pits. Wild ginger Sechelt used leaves to treat Roots eaten fresh, or ground, & n/a Asarum caudatum arthritis. Nuxalt used roots to used as flavouring. treat headaches. Yarrow Makah & Ditidaht prepared n/a n/a Achillea millefolium childbirth medicines, Nuxalt treated bronchitis & Squamish used for measles. Lady fern n/a The Squamish & the Straits Fronds used to lay out, or cover, Athyrium felix-femina Salish steamed young shoots. food & for drying berries. Sword fern The Nuu-chah-nulth ate rhizomes Roasted or steamed rhizomes, Fronds used as flooring & Polystichum munitum to cure diarrhea. eaten with grease or salmon bedding. Also layered between eggs. food in pit ovens, storage boxes & berry-drying racks.