by Susan Leopold This year’s Journal celebrates 25 years of Medicinal Plant Conservation and is our most extensive publication to date. The theme is Voices from the Land, with intent to share indigenous perspectives in relationship with plants. This perspective is most profound in the article on white sage and the conflict with commercialization and …
Dear Friends and Members of the IUCN Medicinal Plant Specialist Group, The time has come to collect new articles for United Plant Savers’ annual Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, joining with the MPSG’s Medicinal Plant Conservation newsletter, to be published in Spring 2020. We invite all members of the IUCN MPSG to tell their stories …
Read moreCall for Articles: 2020 Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation
by Susan Leopold This year it was evident due to the social media reaction that people were expressing anger and concern over the increase in commercialization of white sage (Salvia apiana) and the cultural appropriation and offensive marketing that overlooks ethics and ecological, cultural awareness of a deeply sacred and spiritual plant. The rumblings …
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by Katherine Ziff “The plants are calling you. They have a rich and diverse vocabulary and speak in many tongues…the plants are calling us now, asking for help. The wild gardens are in trouble, and the precious medicines of the earth are being lost.“ — Rosemary Gladstar, 2000 What inspires stewardship of Earth’s medicinal plants? …
by Shantree Kacera In the last decade, especially the previous year or two, the field of herbalism has been shifting—the consciousness of both herbalists and the general public has changed as our climate and landscapes have around the whole world. The shift to looking through the eyes of our ecological selves has come more into …
Read moreShifting the Paradigm: Consciousness in Plant Medicine
by Dr. Michele Devlin The population of rural America is changing very quickly due to the global economy, new labor needs, and an influx of refugees and immigrants to work in meatpacking, agriculture, and related fields. Nearly 200 languages are now spoken even in small states like Iowa, and some rural towns are quickly becoming …
Read moreRural America: The New Global Heartland for Traditional Medicinal Plants
Republished with permission of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature The latest update to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ saw Goldenseal classified as “Vulnerable” on The IUCN Red List in a move that highlights concerns about the medicinal plant’s decline. The IUCN Red List (www.iucnredlist.org) now includes 87,967 different wildlife species, of …
Reprinted with permission of Matt Candeias, In Defense of Plants When we think about long lived plants, our minds tend to fixate on bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva), coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), or that clonal patch of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Utah. What would you say if I told you that we can add a …
by Ruth Davis Plants are often introduced into my garden by a share from a friend. Sometimes it is only a fond memory shared that sends me on a search for the plant itself. This is the case with the chinquapins. My mother spent her childhood in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and …
Read moreLessons on Stewardship: Chinquapins, Chiggers, and Indian Pipes