Steam eastern red cedar cuttings to ease sinus pressure. Throw some pennywort leaves (probably growing near your roof’s downspout) on a salad for a healthy dose of antioxidants. Make a caffeinated “super tea” from yaupon that can lower cholesterol and blood sugar and protect you from colds and certain cancers.
These are a few of the easy ideas you’ll find in April Punsalan’s Foraging Wild Herbs: 30 Healing Plants of the Coastal Carolinas, due out April 14 from University of South Carolina Press. Charleston-based Punsalan is a former botanist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who in 2021, founded Wild Herb Academy (originally called Yahola Herbal School). Her online program teaches people around the world to collect and use wild herbs, and she leads in-person foraging walks in the Lowcountry. “Pre-European settlement, approximately 60 percent of the Indigenous population’s diet came from wild plants,” writes Punsalan in her new field guide. Herbs like the 30 she highlights were treasured for their ability to heal all manner of ailments. But today, most Americans are clueless to the powers within common plants like Spanish moss, magnolia, and blanketflower.
In a conversational tone, Punsalan makes a compelling case for foraging herbs, and it goes beyond each one’s therapeutic benefits. “Shockingly, we spend more than 90 percent of our time indoors, and science is showing that this separation from nature causes anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and a whole suite of psychological disorders,” she writes.
Herb-hunting is itself a health-boosting activity that helps you cultivate a relationship with your environment. And as you learn to identify leaves by their shapes and scents, Punsalan hopes you’ll feel compelled to conserve our local flora and the wild places where it grows.
If you’re new to foraging, begin by selecting three herbs to “connect” with, she suggests. Her book demystifies the process, including instruction on identifying plants and harvesting ethically, with specific suggestions for Lowcountry places to explore.
Punsalan devotes a beautifully illustrated chapter to each of the 30 plants (chosen for their accessibility as well as potency). She shares details on the herbs’ historical and modern uses, with scientific research backing up explanations of their health benefits. There’s also guidance on growing the plants in your own green space: trellising southern dewberry, for example, so you can snack on its blackberry-like fruit.
Each chapter ends with ideas for preparing the herb to boost your health and wellness. There are recipes for teas, salads, and a beautyberry jam and instructions for steam facials, skin toners, wound rinses, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned herbalist or a novice, you’ll find myriad ideas to try at home.
