! "# UNITED PLANT SAVERS WINDOWSILL TO THE WORLD OF PO Box 147 Rutland, OH 45775 Tel. (740) 742-3455 MEDICINAL PLANTS email: offi [email protected] by Susan Leopold www.unitedplantsavers.org The inspiration for the 2020 cover of this Journal came from a post made on Instagram not too long ago. A question was asked, “What is your favorite plant 2020 podcast?” and hundreds of people engaged. Most fascinating was the response Board of Directors on podcasts that relate to potted indoor plants. According to the New York Steven Yeager, President Times, indoor plants have become extremely popular from podcasts, Instagram Rosemary Gladstar, accounts, and plant stylists. What does this latest plant craze say about how Founding President plants make us feel when we connect with them, even in the simple capacity of Eleanor Kuntz, caring for an indoor plant? This question is easily answered in the beautifully Vice President animated short fi lm “Bloom” by Emily Johnstone, brought to my attention through Michael McGuffi n, Treasurer the weekly blog Brain Pickings! This short fi lm captured kindness and overcoming Bevin Clare, Secretary depression through the tending of an amaryllis that lived in a city windowsill. Kelly Ablard Forest bathing, wildcrafting, mindfulness, farming for the birds, fi nding sanctuary, Bill Chioffi and a language for grief are all parts of the holistic role plants play in our lives. Lonnie Galt-Theis Thus the idea for the potted plants on the windowsill came to mind as a way to Helen Lowe-Metzman illustrate and honor the global diversity of plants and how they touch our lives. Marc Williams The creativity of the cover is a visual collage inspired by current trends to engage UpS Advisory Board and connect with our readers. Mindy Green, Chairperson Don Babineau United Plant Savers is an active member of the IUCN (International Union Betzy Bancroft for Conservation of Nature). Within the IUCN Species Survival Commission Tim Blakley is the Medicinal Plant Specialist Group – a global network of people working Jane Bothwell on medicinal plant conservation. Every four years the IUCN gathers for the Peggy Brevoort conservation congress. The last congress was held in Hawaii, and this year’s Richo Cech congress was planned to be in Marseille, France in June. Unfortunately, it has Mark Cohen been postponed until January of 2021. Ryan Drum Trish Flaster The IUCN was founded in 1964. One of its six volunteer commissions, the Species Steven Foster Survival Commission, is a world-wide network of scientists working to document James Green and monitor biodiversity, most notably through the IUCN Red List of Threatened Christopher Hobbs Species. Nearly 9,000 people attended the last congress in Hawaii from countries David Hoff mann Loren Israelsen around the world. They gathered to discuss conservation priorities and to adopt Kelly Kindscher voluntary global resolutions that help guide nation-state policies critical to Lynda LeMole biodiversity. Jon Maxwell Robert McCaleb When I was a student studying global ethnobotany, the IUCN Red List information Pam Montgomery was a critical resource. Sadly, hardly any work had been done to evaluate Deb Soule medicinal plants in North America until last year when goldenseal was listed Nancy Scarzello as Vulnerable. Now there is an active program newly funded through the New Paul Strauss Mexico BioPark Society to evaluate the UpS “At-Risk” and “To-Watch” plants! David Winston This project is detailed in the fi rst article of this issue. The IUCN Medicinal Plant Lee Wood Specialist Group was invited to submit stories to this years’ Journal. Each account Rebecca Wood reminds us that plant conservation is a global issue. Not only do these stories Katherine Yvinskas highlight endemic species, but also those medicinal plants that have traveled and found a new home where they are important to local needs, which is why I Executive Director highlighted the castor plant in the Kenya story on the cover of the Journal. Susan Leopold, PhD [email protected] In the upper right-hand corner is an image of C.S. Rafi nesque (1783-1840), whose Staff father was a merchant from Marseille. Rafi nesque would eventually make his way John Stock, to North America and is considered by many as the father of Eclectic Medicine. He Director of Outreach was a polymath, helping to decipher Mayan script, wrote about evolution before and Operations Darwin, and documented the mounds of Kentucky before most were destroyed [email protected] by the plow, just to name a few signifi cant contributions. In his time he was an Chip Carroll, outcast and died penniless, that said he leaves behind a bridge to a bio-diverse Sanctuary Steward landscape through his hundreds of publications. Bailey Grenert, AmeriCorps Service Member In the far left-hand corner is a hidden “Reine de Deniers” from the Tarot de Brenna Dobos Marseille. The Queen seemed the perfect choice as a maternal card that AmeriCorps Service Member expresses spirituality and creative energy in the earthly plane that we so need Editor at this moment in time. The tarot has a mysterious link to the Eclectic School of Beth Baugh Medicine, most notably by the Lloyd brothers, who were known to belong to the Theosophical Society. John Uri Lloyd would go on to write the novel Etidorpha, 2 | Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE ARTICLES Windowsill to the World of Medicinal Plants ...2 Conservation of North American Medicinal Plants Begins with Status Assessment .............4 Blooming Habitat ..............................................13 A Frankincense Tree Conservation Project in Oman ............................................................. 14 Medicinal Aromatic Plants of the Arid Region................................................................. 16 Zhumeria Majdae, an Endemic Endangered Aromatic Plant from South Iran ......................17 Genetic Resources Conserved by National Cen- ter for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (Nacgrab) Nigeria ..............................................18 The Long Road to Sustainable Licorice .......... 19 A Story of Medicinal Plants from the Ogiek of Kenya ............................................................. 22 and he would ask his friend Augustus Knapp to illustrate the infamous Medicinal Plants Used in Traditional Herbal occult classic. Curtis Lloyd, a mycologist would commission Knapp to Medicine in the Fifa Village/Southern Jordan 24 illustrate 42 studies of fungi. Knapp would later move from Cincinnati Death of the Delta .............................................27 to California and go on to meet Manly Hall, and thus the classic Knapp/ Ginseng and the Fate of the Commons: A Les- Hall tarot cards were created. The tarot of the Americas continues in son from History ...............................................29 the tradition of the tarot of Europe, steeped in the mysteries of sacred It’s All About Technique: In Vitro Methods for Storing Medicinal Plant Germplasm ...............33 geometry, astronomy, alchemy, herbalism, and divination. Why Don’t We Stop And Smell the Roses? .....36 Another hidden gem in the cover is a stamp from Zaire (now the Sacred Threads ................................................. 38 Democratic Republic of Congo), Engleromyces goetzei, a fungus that Wildcrafting in a Warming World ....................40 grows on bamboo and is mentioned in the article from Kenya as a very SACRED SEEDS important medicine. The mysteries of plant medicine rooted in cultural Sacred Seeds at Finca Luna Nueva Lodge ..... 46 and diverse landscapes are often just hiding in plain sight—we only The Sacred Seeds Ethnobotanical Trail at need to recognize their value, and thus they appear. Bastyr University: Lessons Learned ................49 Take a Journey Through the Senses of Your The theme of Marseille for this year’s cover seems Elements at Ocean Forest’s EthnoBotanical very symbolic to the folklore surrounding the and Permaculture Gardens .............................53 classic thieves oil. The story is told that in 1413, A Language for Grief .........................................58 as the bubonic plague decimated France, a group Flower Essences: Inspiring Plant Conservation .63 of unemployed spice merchants was arrested for robbing the dead and dying. When caught the judge BOTANICAL SANCTUARY NETWORK off ered leniency if they shared their secrets for not Dogwood and Brambles .................................. 65 contracting the plague. Thus the classic thieves oil: Farming Is for the Birds ....................................66 clove, lemon, eucalyptus, rosemary, and cinnamon, Eden Hyll Sanctuary ..........................................68 and certainly many other classic combinations and Heart Springs Sanctuary .................................. 70 remedies that have ties to the spice trade. Marseille On the Big Mountain with Pawpaw Bill ..........73 has a rich herbal history, for example, the beak- Green Comfortbotanical Sanctuary ................76 like masks that plague doctors wore, stuff ed with Plattsburgh Botanical Sanctuary .....................77 absorbent material soaked in the thieves blend to Walker Mountain Botanical Sanctuary ...........78 protect them from getting sick. Watershed Forest Farm.................................... 79 UpS Forest Grown Verifi cation Program ........82 There is so much to be learned in these pages, Giving the Green Light to Healthy and many diff erent ideas, perspectives, and opinions are presented. Wild-Simulated