Salvation for Medicinal Herbs Ute Eberle und Susi Lotz Text | Katharina Poblotzki Fotos  They reappear shortly after the last snow has thawed in spring in southern Ohio, USA, and the meltwater gurgles in small streams from the hills. Sanguinaria, a plant that owes its name to its blood-red roots and is valued for its antibacterial properties, often makes the start. The next ones are usually the forest lilies, which are used for bleeding and ...

Our Executive Director, Susan Leopold, PhD, recently led a workshop on responsible botanical sourcing, including a case study of Sandalwood (Santalum spp.), and you can access it FOR FREE!  Learn more about why many of this slow-growing plant's 16 species are threatened (hint: it's not JUST because of its skyrocketing global demand) and how the event sponsor, Quintis Sandalwood, is making a difference by growing Sandalwood in Australia through a unique agroforestry system. Register today ...

Written by Susan Leopold, PhD for Herbal Reality. It was early this spring in 2021 when visiting a friend in southern Virginia that I came across a rare encounter with a small colony of just emerging False Unicorn root (Chamaelirium luteum). This sacred fertility herb was thriving in the woods nestled throughout a graveyard of rusty old farm equipment. Hiding in plain site along a winding creek there were about 20 or so plants spread out in ...

Deerfield, Virginia Sanctuary Steward: Shay Herring Clanton It is the end of January at Walker Mountain Botanical Sanctuary. The black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), and ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) that grow on the northern and eastern slopes of this land are dormant these short winter days and long nights, but as the light increases, day by day, they are preparing once again for spring and new life. The pair of ravens who nest ...

Marshall, NC Sanctuary Steward: Robert Eidus “It seems like with the environment, everyone’s up on trees and animals and insects and butterflies. But the plants are just not really defended at all.” Robert Eidus sees his purpose in life as being a defender of Appalachia’s wild woodland medicinal plants— plants like trillium (Trillium spp.), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), and especially American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). At Eagle Feather Farm, a medicinal plant nursery nestled in a mountain ...

By Michael Pilarski United Plant Savers has done great work with 1) preserving what we currently have; and 2) encouraging more farming of medicinal plants to reduce wildcrafting pressures, 3) encouraging forest-grown herbs. Here are a few thoughts on a 4th way: Creating new forests for medicinal production and wildcrafting habitat. We can use more emphasis on combining ecosystem restoration with herbal production. For instance, here in the Pacific Northwest we are designing riparian corridor ...

Utilizing sustainable forest herb farming to save a disappearing Iowa biome By Wendy M. Welder Abstract The Midwest oak savanna is a rare ecosystem disappearing rapidly from North America. Once covering millions of acres, the long ribbon of oak trees running from Mississippi to Canada is disappearing due to deforestation, overgrazing and wildfire suppression. The Midwest oak savanna is a transition point between mountains and plains and named for the predominantly occurring tree, the oak ...