The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies Insomnia: Parrot’s beak is a good sleep aid. It helps the body relax and has mild sedative properties.
Harvesting: Harvest the leaves at any time. Flower petals are harvested in the late morning while they are fresh and the dew has dried. Dry the flowers and leaves for future use. Harvest only what you need as it is not a common plant and leave plenty in the area you harvest.
Warning: The plant is relaxing and can give you a “spacey” feeling. Start with a low dose and increase as needed.
Recipes. Parrot’s Beak Tea: Ingredients: 1 teaspoon dried and crushed parrot’s beak flower petals and leaves and 1 cup boiling water. Pedicularis racemosa, Matt Lavin, Wikipedia commons CC 2.0
Smoking and Drug Withdrawal: This herb is
Place the herbs in a tea ball. Pour the boiling water over the herbs and allow it to steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain out the herbs and drink the tea, as needed.
calming and relaxing. It helps with some of the withdrawal symptoms from drugs or smoking.
Partridgeberry, Mitchella repens Partridgeberry is mostly known for its use for menstrual problems and in facilitating childbirth. It is also called Deerberry, Twinberry, and Squaw Vine. It likes sandy soils and is shade-tolerant. It is in the Rubiaceae (Bedstraw/Madder) Family. It grows in Eastern North America.
Identification: Partridgeberry is a creeping broadleaf evergreen that grows as a very low growing ground cover. The plant grows about 2 to 3 inches (5 cm to 7.5
cm) tall and spreads 6 inches (15 cm) to 1 foot across. Opposite leaves are oval to round, dark green, and glossy. Each leaf is up to ¾ inch (1 cm) long with whitish veins growing in pairs along the stems. Paired white blossoms appear at the ends of the stems from May to July. Each flower has four lobes and is trumpet-shaped. One pair of flowers forms one bright red berry that ripens in late summer and may stay on the plant until the following spring.
Edible Use: The berries are edible, but rather tasteless, so they are usually only used when food supplies are scarce.
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