Life Everlasting (Pearl-Flowered)

January 30th, 2008

Botanical Name: Antennaria Margaritaceum
Family: N.O. Compositae
Synonyms: American Everlasting. Cudweed.
Common Names: Pearly everlasting, Pearl-flowered life everlasting.
Parts Used: Leaves, flowers, stalks.
Habitat: North America, Kamschatka and in English gardens. Grows wild in Essex, near Bocking, and in Wales. Cultivated in Whin’s Cottage garden by the writer.

Description:Antennaria margaritacea is a perennial plant, with a simple, erect stem, corymbosely branched above. The leaves are linear-lanceolate, acute, 3-veined, sessile, and beneath the stem woolly; the corymbs are many-flowered and fastigiate; the scales of the hemispheric involucre are elliptic, obtuse, opaque, pearl-white, the outer ones only tomentose at the base; beads dioecious; the pistillate flowers are very slender; pappus simple, bristly, capillary in the fertile flowers, and in the sterile club-shaped, or barbellate at the summit. The corolla is yellowish (W. G.).

Leaves linear, lanceolate, acuminate; alternate stalk branched at top; corymbs fastigiate; root perennial, creeping, spreading, becoming almost a troublesome weed; stalks very downy, and white flowering branches form a flat broad bunch, each branch with numerous crowded heads, on short branched downy peduncles, the middle ones sessile; calyx scales bluntly ovate and white, but not downy, flowers July to September. Easily propagated by creeping roots. The plant is slightly fragrant.

History and Chemical Composition.â€”The name Antennaria is from the resemblance of the sterile pappus to the antennae of many insects (W.). The plant is slightly fragrant, and grows in dry hills and woods of various parts of the United States; it is from 1 to 2 feet in height, and bears yellow and white flowers in July. The leaves are the parts used. They contain a bitter principle and an essential oil.

Medicinal Action and Uses and Dosage: Anodyne, astringent, pectoral, useful in diarrhoea, dysentery, pulmonary affections, as a poultice for sprains, bruises, boils, painful swellings. Said to produce sleep. When hops have failed, applied externally to the head, a decoction of the flowers and stalks used in America as a fomentation for pained and bruised limbs, and for bronchitis.

A decoction has proved beneficial in diarrhoea and dysentery, and in pulmonary affections. Externally, it forms an excellent poultice in sprains, bruises, boils, painful swellings, etc., and is said to produce sleep when applied externally to the head, even in cases where a poultice of hops has failed. Rafinesque is authority for the statement that the Indians, for a trifle, would allow rattlesnakes to bite them, to show that they could cure the bite at once with this plant. Decoction (â„¥j to aqua Oj) freely.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Related Species.â€”Antennaria plantaginifolia, Robert Brown. (Gnaphalium plantaginifolium, LinnÃ©; G. plantagineum, Pursh; G. dioicum, var. plantaginifolium, Michaux). Plantain life everlasting. Cudweed. Mouse-ear everlasting. Canada and the United States, in open woods and barren hills. Domestic remedy, when boiled in milk, for diarrhoea and dysentery. Reputed efficacious in bites of poisonous reptiles.

Antennaria dioica, Gaertner (Gnaphalium dioicum, LinnÃ©). Europe. Used the same as preceding species.

Antennaria arenarium, LinnÃ©. Europe and Asia. Uses same as preceding species.

Gnaphalium polycephalum, LinnÃ©.( Click to see Gnaphalium)

Resources:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/lifeve18.html
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/antennaria.html