The Healing Grace of California Poppy

Below is my final assignment for Angie Goodloe's Herbalist 101 course.  Be warned, it's lengthy!  But there's a surprise at the end.  If you have any interest in herbalism, I highly recommend Angie's course.  It's full of information, provides plenty of opportunity for you to get intimate with herbs and make those medicines.  And  Angie provides plenty of feedback and encouragement in her responses to the assignments. Fun stuff!

Also, Angie is currently offering the course at an absurdly low price ($35!).  I assure you, the course is worth far, far more than that!

 

California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

Alternate names: Copa de ora, Dormidera (the Drowsy One, since this 'sun-worshipping flower' closes its blooms at night)

Family: Papaveraceae  

Patterns of the Poppy family are showy flowers with 2-3 sepals that shed early, petals in multiples of four, lots of stamens.  They often have milky sap in their stems.  Many plants in this family contain narcotic alkaloids.  Narcotics depress the central nervous system, sedating and offering relief from the feeling of pain (analgesic). [I'm noting Family characteristics in anticipation of work I'm doing with the Kamana Naturalist Training Program.  Currently in that program I'm journaling Plants, which will soon include detailing all the native plant families of my area.]

With that "Family background" in mind, let's explore this beautiful herb ...

The state flower of California, California Poppy is aptly chosen for this honor.    For countless generations the native peoples of California carefully cultivated this plant--as they did with many others--for food and medicine in monocropped expanses on hillside and in valleys.  European settlers thought they had arrived in untouched wilderness.  Not so.  The native peoples practiced sustainable harvesting and sowing that involved controlled burns as part of their land management.

It is said that north of Pasadena early Spanish sailors guided by a golden hillside in spring -- a hillside shining with the bright orange-gold of the California Poppy.  It is also said that this was one reason they dubbed this coast "the Land of Fire" (the other reason being that there were indeed fires a-plenty due to lightning strikes as well as due to the dry, arid summers).

The Yuki tribe used it for toothaches, it was food for the Sierra Miwoks, the Ohlone used it for sleep, the Wintu used it to heal newborn baby belly buttons

The Nisenan ate the leaves either boiled or roasted with hot stones and then laid in water.  The Pomo mashed the seedpod or a decoction of it on a nursing mother's breast to dry up her milk.  And the plant was given to babies as a sedative and placed under the bed for better sleep.  Other tribes rubbed a decoction of the flowers into the hair to kill lice.  The root juice was taken to relieve stomachaches and tuberculosis, and as a wash for weeping sores.

The plant itself: is a perennial or annual (further north) to 2 ft. tall with mostly basal with bluish-green lacelike leaves.  When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, the plant was an annual.  Here in my backyard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the plant is definitely a perennial.  The plant in these photographs is one that has been thriving since our arrival here last June. 

The flowers sit atop a flattened rim on long stalks.  The flowers are of four shiny petals bright orange to yellow in color, sepals fused into cap, and falling off when it flowers.  Many stamens.  The fruit is long and slender, containing many black seeds.   It's so satisfying to collect the seeds!   Just pluck off the dried pods and pop them into an envelope.  The plant flowers from February through November.

The plant is found in grasslands, hillsides, and open areas, in well-drained and poor soil, from Southern California up through Washington.

In terms of modern-day herbalism California Poppy has these characteristics.

Taste: Bitter

Energy: Cool

Organs affected: Liver, Heart

Actions (according to Lesley Tierra): calm the Spirit (I most definitely agree!)

Properties: Sedative, analgesic, anti-diarrheal, antitussove. diaphoretic, antispasmodic 

Indications: anxiety, nervous tension, agitation, neuralgia, pain relief (including acute), nervousness, sciatica, herbes, shingles, heart palpitations, insomnia

Dose: rounded teaspoon of chopped plant as tea, drink 1-3 times daily; fresh plant tincture: 20-60 drops 1-4 times daily.  For sleep problems, take 20-40 drops one hour before sleep, then again right before bedtime.  For bedwetting in children over 5 years old, use with horsetail, 10 drops of each twice/day.

A mild sedative and analgesic, this plant is suitable even for children, though may cause a mild 'hangover' headache the next morning if used in excessive quantities.   Lesley Tierra writes: "California poppy wonderfully sedates, calms and relaxes the nervous system, treating symptoms of anxiety, nervous tension and agitation.  As well, it repairs nerves and alleviates nerve pain, especially from sciatica, herpes and shingles.  It is also used for heart palpitations and insomnia due to nervousness.

Contraindications: large amounts used sometimes cause nausia. Better not to use it during pregnancy.

Collecting: Gather the whole above ground plant and dry it.  Or tincture the whole fresh plant.  When I tinctured California Poppy in the past, I used the whole plant, including the roots.

My Own Experience With California Poppy:

Moving to the Pacific Northwest 12 years ago (from the SF Bay Area) I was overjoyed to discover that California Poppy lived up there.  For me, California Poppy has always represented the spirit qualities of joyfulness and home.  My spirits lift at the sight of this plant in bloom, and I marvel at the softness and lacy beauty of the leaves.  But this plant is no fragile beauty.  There is a boisterousness of spirit that seems to me to announce itself in celebration to the world at large -- to the bees and insects, the natural world, and definitely to us humans!  As plant spirit medicine I have turned to California Poppy whenever I have sought a sense of  'home' within my anxious heart, and the promise of a lively grace that can exist and persist even in the face of inevitable hardships and pain.  I'll sit with the plant, touch its velvety petals or soft foliage, or nibble its leaves or petals.  Just being with this plant opens something true, kind, and strong within me.

More along these lines: When I became a Reiki Master, I intuitively received a series of symbols -- conduits for particular healing energy.  One of them I have come to associate with California Poppy, and this I use in spirit healing whenever I feel that California Poppy's qualities are needed.

A few years ago, my friend Lisa and I gathered the whole plant garden and tinctured it in vodka.  The tincture rapidly became our favorite remedy for sleeplessness due to nervous tension.  I believe Lisa used it with her family successfully to ease tooth pain.  Certainly I would use it for that purpose!  It is my remedy of choice when nervous anxiety is mixed with a need for (physical) pain relief.  

Last year, during our family's transition, I felt my mind returning to nervous anxiety that began again to interfere with my sleep.  The previous year I'd had a long stretch of this, and it was certainly hard to function coherently and in a grounded way at that time!  I pulled out my California Poppy tincture and began to take it at bedtime.  Just a couple nights of this routine and I was able to resume a more restful sleep pattern. 

Here in early spring, new poppy plants are emerging  in our vegetable garden.  The sturdy plant in the photos and in the video below, continues to thrive.  We are astonished by this particular plant, as it was accidently stepped on when we were digging our garden last year.  Somehow -- perhaps because of the love and attention my daughters have lavished upon it since then -- it recovered and has become the bold beauty of the garden.

Below is a video of  the California Poppy.  In it, I listen for a 'medicine song' and infuse it with Reiki.  As you listen to the song, may you experience the healing qualities of this plant!

Resources:

Thomas Elpel, Botany In A Day

M. Kat Anderson, Tending The Wild: Native American Knowledge And The Management Of California's Natural Resources

Steven Foster and Christopher Hobbs, Western Medicinal Plants And Herbs (Peterson Field Guide)

Herbalpedia 2007

Lesley Tierra, Healing With The Herbs Of Life

Michael Moore, Medicinal Plants Of The Mountain West

Matthew Wood, The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide To New World Medicinal Plants.

Art by me of California Poppy (with Plantain and grasses in the foreground)

The Garden Calls!

This is a picture from four years ago. My daughters are collecting dandelions for making dandelion fritters. Yum!

I'm immersing myself in a lot of herbal study and experience right now, and also reading up on plant spirit medicine--which I realize is what I have been practicing when I offer nourishing herbs to my clients or invoke the quality or 'spirit' (to me) of a particular herb during a healing session. Lovely.

In the former (herbal study) I've been making infusions and syrups, and applying them to self and my family (as needed). Currently my older daughter  has been suffering from a flu. So, I peered through some recipes and the colds-and-flu ebook on HerbMentor.com, and have been trying a various remedies on her. After mixing a too-complex tea of peppermint (for her headache) and rose (for gentleness) with elderberry syrup (this decoction with its own spices sent the tea over the top!), I finally got the message that less is more with her. The little bundle I made of dried peppermint and rose petals to scent the air around her is probably enough! And if I venture into teas with her tomorrow it will be with a single green ally .... She's been a pretty good sport with my experimentation, all things considered!

I do long for my herb garden. It would be lovely to pick some lavender, chamomile and calendula, just to put near my dear daughter, to lighten and soothe her spirits. And a sprig of mint for encouraging a banishment of her headache! I've been enjoying adventuring with the dried herbs I've had to purchase in lieu of my garden, but so much more is invoked, evoked, conveyed with a single flower.

I do believe I've resumed a harper's garden! Thank you for continuing to join me here, dear readers!

Chickens, Victory Gardens, And Herbs

My herb garden from a few years ago. If I can grow herbs anyone can!


Bright Solstice to you all! I have another Solstice tale to offer, but first--I want to encourage you all to get with the times (if you're not tuned into them already!). Yes, the times they are a-changing, and it is more than time to dust off a little self-reliance (or to get a little more down and dirty!) as we face the weather of uncertainty--or just want to ground ourselves in the things that are real--good, nourishing food; herbal cooking and remedies to take our own health into our hands; sustaining, enlivening community; understanding ourselves as beings of the natural world ...

I have a few suggestions to offer for 2009:

- raise backyard chickens.
You don't need a rooster for hens to lay eggs. Three hens is plenty for a great supply, and those chickens are so pragmatic and silly ... For more about the joys of chickens and some practical ways to get started, read my family's blog Plain Old Chickens or type "backyard chickens" in your search engine. Lots of folks are raising chickens in urban and suburban settings, as Newsweek reported a few weeks ago. Hey, you'll be on the cutting edge of national trends ....

- start a Victory Garden.
Growing any amount of veggies or herbs will make a difference in your life. Here's a great and informative article on modern-day Victory Gardens by Sharon Astyk. Also, wouldn't it be incredible if the White House transformed five acres of nonproductive lawn into an organic farm, as suggested by Michael Pollan, Farmer In Chief, in an Open Letter To The Next President Elect, back in Oct.?

Oh, gosh, I just have to quote this section of Michael Pollan's letter. Do read the rest of it to get a sense of what he means by "developing sun-based regional agriculture" -- so much of that is absolutely brilliant (bad pun in honor of the return of the Sun on this Winter Solstice day!).:

"Since enhancing the prestige of farming as an occupation is critical to developing the sun-based regional agriculture we need, the White House should appoint, in addition to a White House chef, a White House farmer. This new post would be charged with implementing what could turn out to be your most symbolically resonant step in building a new American food culture. And that is this: tear out five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden.

"When Eleanor Roosevelt did something similar in 1943, she helped start a Victory Garden movement that ended up making a substantial contribution to feeding the nation in wartime. (Less well known is the fact that Roosevelt planted this garden over the objections of the U.S.D.A., which feared home gardening would hurt the American food industry.) By the end of the war, more than 20 million home gardens were supplying 40 percent of the produce consumed in America. The president should throw his support behind a new Victory Garden movement, this one seeking "victory" over three critical challenges we face today: high food prices, poor diets and a sedentary population. Eating from this, the shortest food chain of all, offers anyone with a patch of land a way to reduce their fossil-fuel consumption and help fight climate change. (We should offer grants to cities to build allotment gardens for people without access to land.) Just as important, Victory Gardens offer a way to enlist Americans, in body as well as mind, in the work of feeding themselves and changing the food system - something more ennobling, surely, than merely asking them to shop a little differently.

"I don't need to tell you that ripping out even a section of the White House lawn will be controversial: Americans love their lawns, and the South Lawn is one of the most beautiful in the country. But imagine all the energy, water and petrochemicals it takes to make it that way. (Even for the purposes of this memo, the White House would not disclose its lawn-care regimen.) Yet as deeply as Americans feel about their lawns, the agrarian ideal runs deeper still, and making this particular plot of American land productive, especially if the First Family gets out there and pulls weeds now and again, will provide an image even more stirring than that of a pretty lawn: the image of stewardship of the land, of self-reliance and of making the most of local sunlight to feed one's family and community. The fact that surplus produce from the South Lawn Victory Garden (and there will be literally tons of it) will be offered to regional food banks will make its own eloquent statement ..."

- venture into growing and using herbs to nourish your health, and even provide a home remedy or two (or more!)

For a great introduction into the vibrant and vital world of herbs, visit LearningHerbs.com, which has a free 7-day "Supermarket Herbalism e-course, and great articles for using herbs for nourishment and for making herbal remedies. If you want to go deep into herbal medicine I cannot recommend its companion site HerbMentor.com enough. For what is basically a $10/month membership you have access to quantities of audio interviews with practicing herbalists, herbalist courses, downloadable PDFs on various aspects of herbal medicine making, and access to a great community forum where you can access the great amount of information by the members.

Peace Tea Meditation

Welcome To The Peace Garden!
Imagine yourself in a lush meadow surrounded by a forest of red cedar, fir, and alder, with shrubs of Indian plum and trailing blackberry vines. The meadow itself is an herb garden, and as you walk the paths your feet step on a ground cover of wild thyme. The tangy scent spikes the air. Your hand brushes against the silver stalks of lavender, and this gentle fragrance interlaces with that of the thyme, of mint, and even with that of the cedar and fir growing nearby. This is a place where both forest and garden mingle, where both can be at peace with each other.

The forest and the garden speak to you. The great cedar, just at the garden's edge, invites you to gather a handful of its newest needles, the light green fronds. The fir tree asks you to gather some of its needles, and a few of those brown buds at the base of the needles. You place them in a pot of water you carry. Now the lavender whispers to you, and the new leaves of the wild rose. You gather these leaves, as well as a stalk of mint (for mint will not be ignored). Nearby, a small fire burns in a cleared area lined with stones. You place the pot on the stones, and settle yourself on a mossy rock. You notice a gently bubbling stream. at the edges, and a stump with already cracked nuts on its surface (you can decorate with them or eat them!). The sun warms the air with garden and forest fragrances, even as the water in the pot begins to simmer. Time drapes like a gauze veil, sleepy around your shoulders. But eventually the tea is ready, and you notice a ladle and teacup by the fire circle.

Have they always been there? The wind trembles a melody through the forest branches. The music - and its message - is there for you to enjoy as you sip your forest-garden tea, your Peace Tea.

Peace Tea watercolor art by Jane

Create Your Own Peace Tea.
Pluck a loosely packed cupful of some of any or one of these herbs (see below) -- they are all edible, but make sure that the plants are pesticide and chemical-free, not alongside a road, and are healthy and have plenty of leaves and blossoms to spare. Newer leaves are best, releasing their flavor more readily. If you have allergies, I suggest that you do some research before making tea with flowers.

Before you pick, you might want make your intention known to the plant and "ask" if its all right to take some of its leaves or petals. Then listen with your heart. If you feel some sort of discord or tension, then leave the plant alone. If you feel an openness, then go ahead and gently pick. Be sure to thank the plant for the gift of itself! You might want to offer a gift to it in return, such as a song, or water for its roots, or corn meal (an ancient offering). My 6-year-old daughter Gwynne suggests: "If you really want to share things with yourself and your plant friends, give a few drips of your tea to the plant."

fir or pine needles
cedar needles
apple, rose, lavender, mint, blackberry strawberry, or raspberry blossoms and/or young leaves
a simple good wish for yourself and the world, like "harmony", "kindness", "beauty, or "peace"

Place the leaves & petals in a quart of water. Bring just below boiling, then turn it down and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Placing your hands around your teapot or cup, take a moment (short or long) to infuse the tea with your wish. Now, taste your tea! Add honey if you wish. Remember those plants who shared themselves as you enjoy their essence! Offer your tea back to the plants from which it came, or to other plants you know and love!