Sage | Find Me A Cure

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Botanical Name:Salvia lyrata
Family: Lamiaceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Lamiales
Genus: Salvia
Species: S. lyrata
Common Names: Cancer Root, Lyreleaf Sage, Wild sage,Cancerweed,

Habitat:Lyre-leaved Sage is found in sandy soiled woods and clearings.Dry, open woods and dry thickets, barrens, roadsides, lawns and waste places. Eastern N. America – Pennsylvania to Florida, west to Texas and Illinois.

Description:It is a herbaceous perennial plant with low growing leaves and flowering stems growing to 50 cm tall. The leaves are arranged in a basal rosette of large leaves, and smaller leaves in opposite pairs on the erect flowering stem. The basal leaves are up to 15 cm long and 5 cm broad, with several lobes, some approximating to the shape of a lyre, from which the species is named. The flowers are pale blue, up to 25 mm long. The species is often a lawn weed that self seeds into lawns and is tolerant of being mowed. It has square, slightly hairy, stem and produce whorls of blue or violet tubular flowers. The leaves form a basal rosette, are up to 8″ long, and often have dark red or purple areas along the main veins, are irregularly cleft and some times lobed. Gather fresh young edible leaves in spring. Gather entire plant as flowers bloom, dry for later herb use.
CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
Flower size: 1 inch long , Flower color: pale blue-purple. Flowering time: May to June

Identification: Flowers tubular, violet to blue-violet. Lower petals lobes fused into a three-lobed hanging banner. Upper petal lobe narrow, folded, containing the stamens. Sepals fused forming a spiny capsule containing the corolla. Stem square, weakly hairy. Upper leaves blade-shaped, with slightly irregular outer margins. Lower leaves forming a rosette with outer margins irregularly lobed. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Cultivation and uses: It requires a very well-drained light sandy soil in a sunny position.It is sometimes grown in gardens for its attractive foliage and flowers. Several cultivars have been developed with purple leaves. Two readily available seed raised cultivars include:

‘Purple Prince’ – Grows about 35 cm tall with reddish purple colored veins and dark purple spikes with small lilac colored flowers in dark purple calyces.
‘Purple Volcano’ – Grows about 35 cm tall with dark purple leaves that have a shiny sheen to them. The flowers are light blue in color.

Medicinal Properties:
Medicinal and edible herb, as an alternative medicine it is carminative, diaphoretic, laxative, and salve. Lyre-leaved sage has some of the same medicinal properties of the other sages but is very week. It is used mainly as a gargle in the treatment of sore throat and mouth infections. Medicinal salve made from root is applied to sores. Warm infusion of herb is taken as a laxative or for colds, coughs and nervous debility. This sage is not very strong tasting, and has a rather pleasent minty flavor, fresh young leaves are edible in salads, or cooked as pot herb.

Folklore
Lyre-leaved sage is also a folk remedy for cancer (as the plant grows like a cancer upon the earth) it is therefore said to cure it. The fresh leaves are said to remove warts.

Recipe
Medicinal tea: To 1 cup water add 1 tbsp. dried herb, bring to boil, steep 10 min. strain, sweeten to taste, drink warm at bed time.

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.

Resources:
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/salvialyra.html
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SALY2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_lyrata
http://www.nearctica.com/flowers/lamia/Slyrata.htm

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Botanical Name: Salvia Verbenaca
Family: N.O. Labiatae
Synonyms: Wild English Clary. Christ’s Eye. Oculus Christi.
Common Name: Wild clary
Parts Used: Leaves, seeds.

Habitat and Possible Locations: In Britain it is found wild in only one place on sand dunes at Vazon Bay in Guernsey. In Europe it is found in dry grassland, avoiding acid soils and shade.Meadow, Cultivated Beds.

Description:
Perennial growing to 0.6m. It is hardy to zone 6. It is in flower from June to September, and the seeds ripen from July to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees and Cleistogomy (self-pollinating without flowers ever opening). The plant is self-fertile. It is noted for attracting wildlife. We rate it 2 out of 5 for usefulness.

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The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought. The plant can tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure.
The Wild English Clary, or Vervain Sage, is a native of all parts of Europe and not uncommon in England in dry pastures and on roadsides, banks and waste ground, especially near the sea, or on chalky soil. It is a smaller plant than the Garden Clary, but its medicinal virtues are rather more powerful.

Description: The perennial root is woody, thicky and long, the stem 1 to 2 feet high, erect with the leaves in distinct pairs, the lower shortly stalked, and the upper ones stalkless. The radical leaves lie in a rosette and have foot-stalks 1 1/2 to 4 inches long, their blades about the same length, oblong in shape, blunt at their ends and heart-shaped at the base, wavy at the margins, which are generally indented by five or six shallow, blunt lobes on each side, their surfaces much wrinkled. The whole plant is aromatic, especially when rubbed, and is rendered conspicuous by its long spike of purplish-blue flowers, first dense, afterwards becoming rather lax. The whorls of the spike are sixflowered, and at the base of each flower are two heart-shaped, fringed, pointed bracts. The calyx is much larger than the corolla. The plant is in bloom from June to August. The seeds are smooth, and like the Garden Clary, produce a great quantity of soft, tasteless mucilage, when moistened. If put under the eyelids for a few moments the tears dissolve this mucilage, which envelops any dust and brings it out safely. Old writers called this plant ‘Oculus Christi,’ or ‘Christ’s Eye.’

Cultivation details
Requires a very well-drained light sandy soil in a sunny position. Prefers a rich soil. Plants can be killed by excessive winter wet.
This species is well suited to the wild garden, growing well in the summer meadow. A good bee plant.
Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer.
Propagation
Seed – sow March/April in a greenhouse. Germination usually takes place within 2 weeks. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and plant them out in early summer. In areas where the plant is towards the limits of its hardiness, it is best to grow the plants on in a greenhouse for their first winter and plant them out in late spring of the following year.

Edible Uses:
Condiment; Flowers; Leaves; Tea.
Leaves – raw or cooked. They are most often used as a flavouring in cooked foods. They are aromatic. The young leaves can be eaten fried or candied[183].

A herb tea is made from the leaves, it is said to improve the digestion.

Flowers – raw. A flavouring in salads

Medicinal Action and Uses: ‘A decoction of the leaves,’ says Culpepper, ‘being drank, warms the stomach, also it helps digestion and scatters congealed blood in any part of the body.’

This Clary was thought to be more efficacious to the eye than the Garden variety.

‘The distilled water strengthening the eyesight, especially of old people,’ says Culpepper, ‘cleaneth the eyes of redness waterishness and heat: it is a gallant remedy fordimness of sight, to take one of the seeds of it and put it into the eyes, and there let it remain till it drops out of itself, the pain will be nothing to speak on: it will cleanse the eyes of all filthy and putrid matter; and repeating it will take off a film which covereth the sight.’

The seed forms a thick mucilage when it is soaked for a few minutes in water. This is efficacious in removing small particles of dust from the eyes.

Other Species:
Salvia pratensis, the MEADOW SAGE – our other native Sage – is a very rare plant, found only in a few localities in Cornwall, Kent and Oxfordshire, and by some authorities is considered hardly a true native.

It is common in some parts of Italy and the Ionian Islands.

It has the habit of S. Verbenaca, but is larger. The flowers are very showy, large and bright blue, arranged on a long spike, four flowers in each whorl, the corolla (about four times as long as the calyx) having the prominent upper lip much arched and compressed and often glutinous. The stem bears very few leaves.

Several plants, though not true Sages, have been popularly called ‘Sage’: Phlomis fruticosa, a hardy garden shrub, 2 to 4 feet high, with flowers either yellow or dusky yellow, was known as Jerusalem Sage; Turner (1548) terms it so and he is followed in this by Green (1832), whereas Lyte (1578) gives this name to Pulmonaria officinalis, the Common Lungwort, and Gerard (1597), describing Phlomis fruticosa, gives it another name, saying, ‘The leaves are in shape like the leaves of Sage, whereupon the vulgar people call it French Sage.’ Gerard gives the name of ‘Sage of Bethlem’ to Pulmonaria officinalis; in localities of North Lincolnshire, the name has been given to the Garden Mint, Mentha viridis. ‘Garlick Sage’ is one of the names quoted by Gerard for Teucrium scorodonia, which we find variously termed by old writers, Mountain Sage, Wild Sage and Wood Sage.

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.

Resources:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Salvia+verbenaca

http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/sages-05.html

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