Plantain; Weedy Determination
When I was in elementary school I wrote an essay about how I was going to have a Weed Sanctuary full of wildling and wandering plants. A place where they could be safe from Round-Up and hailed as heroes and survivors.
I am a weed of a person.
No one really knows how I got to where I am now, but I’m somewhat naturalized in my current environment, enough to call it ‘Home’ anyway, and while I don’t seem to belong to any certain place, I try to be useful where I am. I have fully embraced a weedy determination in my survival, adapting and mutating as needed to survive where unwanted and unplanned for - and I tend to stick out like a sore thumb in a well manicured lawn.
I love the weeds, and they love me. They really do! I say this not with pride, but with gratitude. To have been adopted by such a family is no small thing. To have Plantain as uncle, Dandelion as grandmother, Dock as cousin. To have Burdock roots and a legacy of wild mustard seeds. I say this without a trace of irony or ‘mystic’ intent. My kinship is with the liminal wildness of these plants, and when I die, I will be buried among them and go home. I’ve worked with them so much in my life, my blood will be familiar to them as it will taste of their own. They understand that even though I am clothed in flesh and walk about with my roots in my hands, I smell like a weed - not fit for town *or* wilderness, not for gardens or displays, but for roadsides and dooryards and splinters and stings.
Plantago major: Plantain
Plantaginaceae Family
Parts Used: leaf, seeds
Taste: salty, bitter
Energetics: cooling and moistening
Tissue State: Heat, Dry, Relaxed
Actions: astringent, refrigerant, diuretic, deobstruent
Specific Indications/ Uses: traditionally revered as a “snake bite remedy”, which may be impractical for us today but gives us a good clue as to its uses! This herb is our Great Extractor and has been used for generations to remove the poison and pain from bug bites, splinters, stings and infected wounds. Also a wonderfully nutritious demulcent in cases of constipation and/or diarrhea.
Preparations: infused oil, tea, wash, poultice, salve, ointment, and flower essence