Monday, July 27, 2009

Spigelia marilandica- Got worms?


S. marilandica has a long history of medicinal use. King's American Dispensatory (1898) tells us that Native Americans harvested and prepared the fibrous yellow roots of the plant as an anthelmintic (a substance that causes the expulsion or destruction of intestinal worms) centuries before the arrival of Europeans.

I have these growing in my little forest garden along with foxglove, hellebore, pulmonaria, primrose, jack-in-the-pulpit, trillium and columbine. Those are all done flowering for the year, so it's great to have this brilliant red going. Oh- there's toad lily too and that hasn't bloomed yet.

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