With more than 300 photos, this new edition shows how to identify more than 500 healing plants. Descriptive text includes information on where the plants are found, as well as their known medicinal uses. An index to medical topics, symbols next to plant descriptions, and organization of plants by colors all make this an essential guide to understanding the traditional medicinal uses of the plants around us. At a time when interest in herbs and natural medicine has never been higher, the second edition of this essential guide shows how to identify more than five hundred kinds of healing plants. More than three hundred new color photos illustrate their flowers, leaves, and fruits. The updated descriptive text includes information on where the plants are found as well as their known medicinal uses. An index to medical topics is helpful for quickly locating information on specific ailments, from asthma and headaches to colds and stomachaches. Symbols next to plant descriptions give readers a quick visual alert to plants that are poisonous or may cause allergic reactions. Organized by plant color for fast identification, this guide is an indispensable tool for understanding the traditional medicinal uses of the plants and herbs around us.
About the Author
Steven Foster
With more than 40 years of experience in the herbal field, Steven Foster is author, co-author, and photographer of seventeen books. He lives in Eureka Springs Arkansas, in the heart of the medicinal plant-rich Ozarks.
James A. Duke
With more than six decades of experience as a botanist, and three decades in medical botany James A. Duke is the author of more than 20 books. He lives in Fulton, Maryland, surrounded by some 300 medicinal plants.
Roger Tory Peterson
ROGER TORY PETERSON, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars.
Excerpts
BALSAM FIR Resin, leaves Abies balsamea (L.) Mill Pine Family
Spire-shaped tree; to 60 ft. Flattish needles, to 11?4 in. long, in flattened sprays; stalkless. Needles rounded at base, each with 2 white lines beneath. Cones 1–4 in. long, erect; purple to green, scales mostly twice as long as broad. Bark smooth, with numerous resin pockets. Where found: Moist woods. Canada, south through New England and along mountains to Va. and W. Va.; west through n. Ohio to ne. Iowa, Mich. Uses: Canada Balsam, an oleoresin, is collected by cutting bark blisters or pockets in wood, July–Aug. Used as an antiseptic, in creams and ointments for piles, and as a root-canal sealer. Diuretic (may irritate mucous membranes). American Indians applied resin as an analgesic for burns, sores, bruises, and wounds. Leaf tea used for colds, coughs, and asthma. The oleoresin is pale yellow to greenish yellow; transparent and pleasantly scented. Its primary commercial application has been as a sealing agent for mounted microscope slides. Warning: Resin may cause dermatitis in some individuals.
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