Goldenrod is a potent healer, actually, one of the Native Americans' favourites, with a long list of healing properties.
The name "solidago" means "making whole" - so its high time to dissolve any bad reputation:
Goldenrod pollen does not cause allergies, as is widely believed: it sticks to the plant & is too heavy to fly far enough; Instead, its mostly
, which flowers at the same time, that causes allergies and goldenrod is meanwhile even used by herb companies for products that aim to cure hay fever and other allergies.
Invasive ? Yes, but that allows us to cut them during flowering (before they go to seed) and dig up some roots to create various healing applications - without hesitation !
but as it is very beautiful and blossoms long into autumn, still a beloved garden plant in Europe.
- Bees love them - together with wasps, beetles and butterflies.
- Many species - Canadian Goldenrod is most successful, luckily they share nearly the same medicinal properties and Canadensis is said to taste best, together with Solidago Odora.
- Medicinal Properties (* please read disclaimer below )
Wound healing
Chew (#Outdoor survival) or otherwise create a paste from fresh, or dried leaves and blossoms for applying to wounds to improve healing; also for insect bites. A paste from dried, powdered roots works fine too.
Kidney inflammation and stones
- tea can remove smaller kidney stones
- tea can heal kidney inflammation : create a strong tea, several tablespoons upto a handful for the portion of tea you plan to drink and let it soak for up to 30 minutes.
( Please contact a doctor too, especially with chronic problems ! *)
Generally for urinary tract problems
Again tea, infused vinegar helps to support the immune system in general
Sore throat
Native Amercians chewed leaves & created syrup;
Mouth inflammation: Tincture or strong tea as mouth rinse
Anti-inflammatory ( fever / cold / flu )
also for allergies, as it helps to shrink mucous membranes
Gout / Arthritis
Rheumatism / Joint pain
tea and tincture
Skin Problems, especially eczema
tea and applying masks
As with all herbal remedies: do not consume doses for acute healing for more than 2-3 weeks:
If your problem needs longer treatment, exchange with another plant/tea with a similar action spectrum after some weeks, make sure to stop or remove causes and investigate if your symptoms might relate to another root cause !
Strongly diuretic - be sure to drink much water, as with most herbal teas;
Complete list of healing properties, according to my favourite german herbalism site & webmd:
astringent, diuretic, blood purifier, anti-inflammatory, cystitis, bloating, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, diarrhea, insect bites, kidney semolina and small stones, kidney disease, edema, disorders of the urinary secretion, wound healing, rheumatism, gout, dropsy, reoccurring tuberculosis after latency, enlarged liver and asthma
- HowTo: Goldenrod Tea / Drying
Harvest the plant during flowering:
Dried leaves, stems and blossoms are used for goldenrod tea;
some harvest the complete plant (read below for roots), some only the upper third.
Dry them hanging upside down in small bundles, in a dry and shady room.
(The one I was allowed to use is so shady that it was hard to take a good picture without additional additional lighting ;) ) Once they are dry and brittle, you can continue to dry them in paper bags until you can crumble them.
If you are late, harvest the plant with roots ( the power and healing ingredients draw back into the root system toward winter ) - dry roots cleaned and separately from the remaining plant.
Store them in glass containers or powder them;
Boil roots in small pieces with dried leaves and blossoms for tea.
Powdered roots can also be applied to wounds as paste (mix with a small amount of water) .
- HowTo: Goldenrod Tincture
Fill a glass jar /container with fresh chopped plant parts ( leaves, stems and blossoms, eventually cleaned root parts too )
Fill the container with strong alcohol ( schnaps, vodka or other hard liquor, aim at organic) to the very top and close it.
Let rest for six weeks, then you can pour it through a strainer into - eventually- smaller bottles.
For acute treatments, you will need larger doses ( several ml, several times a day) and thus prefer to use tea, unless you want to get drunk ;)
A nice present and ideal for supporting your immune system and disease prevention by using the vinegar every now and then.
Fill a glass jar with fresh chopped plant parts, as described for tea and fill it up to the top with pasteurised apple vinegar - but use some plastic foil that covers your filled container, if you use a metal lid, as corrosion might occur.
Let rest for six weeks.
Harvest plants, including roots, which you can use as described above #drying, when the plants have gone to seed - as late as possible.
( I will update this post with a picture here )
Depending on weather circumstances during harvest: hang them upside down in small bundles for further drying, you can continue to dry them completely in paper bags, if that is more convenient.
You can either shake the bundles over the area where you want them to grow the following years during autumn - or clean the seeds as to your personal preferences (described on the August page of the seed
calendar here on seeds4all.net )
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(Perfectionist that i am i read many more books(in), posts and saw many more videos - these are just the ones i liked most)
Brill, Steven w. Evelyn Dean /
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