Categories
Herbs & Plants

Trifolium repens

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Botanical Name : Trifolium repens
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Trifolium
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Fabales

Common Name :white clover

Habitat : Trifolium repens native to Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. It has been widely introduced worldwide as a pasture crop, and is now also common in most grassy areas of North America and New Zealand. Also grown in spring and summer.

Description:
It is a herbaceous, perennial plant. It is low growing, with heads of whitish flowers, often with a tinge of pink or cream that may come on with the aging of the plant. The heads are generally 1.5–2 cm wide, and are at the end of 7 cm peduncles or flower stalks. The leaves, which by themselves form the symbol known as shamrock, are trifoliolate, smooth, elliptic to egg-shaped and long-petioled. The stems function as stolons, so white clover often forms mats, with the stems creeping as much as 18 cm a year, and rooting at the nodes.

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Culinary uses:
Besides making an excellent forage crop for livestock, clovers are a valuable survival food: they are high in proteins, widespread, and abundant. The fresh plants have been used for centuries as additives to salads and other meals consisting of leafy vegetables.

They are not easy for humans to digest raw, however, but this is easily fixed by boiling the harvested plants for 5–10 minutes. Dried flowerheads and seedpods can also be ground up into a nutritious flour and mixed with other foods, or can be steeped into a tisane. White clover flour is sometimes sprinkled onto cooked foods such as boiled rice.

When used in soups, the leaves are often harvested before the plant flowers. The roots are also edible, although they are most often cooked firsthand.

Medicinal uses:
The flower heads are the medicinally active parts.  When dry they have a honey-like fragrance and a slightly astringent taste.  An infusion is used to treat gastritis, enteritis, severe diarrhea and rheumatic pains.  It is also used as an inhalant for respiratory infections. Herbal doctors still employ preparations of white clover to ward off mumps.  An old fashioned remedy to cleanse the system. A blood purifier, especially in boils, ulcers and other skin diseases. A strong tea of white clover blossoms is very healing to sores when applied externally. Similar to red clover in use.  An infusion has been used in the treatment of coughs, colds, fevers and leucorrhea. A tincture of the leaves is applied as an ointment to gout. An infusion of the flowers has been used as an eyewash.

Trifolium repens has been used as minor folk medicine by the Cherokee, Iroquois, Mohegan and other Native American tribes for centuries.

The Cherokee, for instance, used an infusion of the plant to treat fevers as well as Bright’s disease. The Delaware and Algonkian natives used the same infusion, but as a treatment for coughing and the common cold.

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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolium_repens
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_C.htm

https://s10.lite.msu.edu/res/msu/botonl/b_online/thome/band3/tafel_115_small.jpg

http://www.robsplants.com/plants/TrifoRepen

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Categories
Healthy Tips

5 Ways to Reduce Children’s Pesticide Exposure

U.S. News & World Report recommends the following steps:

.

1.Buy organic fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and vegetables most likely to be grown using pesticides, if they are not organic, include celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, and blueberries.

2.Detoxify your lawn. If you have a lawn care service, make sure they are not using the organophosphate pesticide trichlorfon.

3.Clean out your shed. The pesticide diazinon (sold under the brand names Diazinon or Spectracide) has been banned from residential, but there might be some left in your old garden shed.

4.Use natural cures for a lice infection
. Malathion is used for treatment of head lice. Don’t put a neurotoxin on your child’s head.

5.Check your school’s pest control policy.
If they have not already done so, encourage your school district to move to Integrated Pest Management, which uses less toxic alternatives.


Resources:

U.S. News & World Report May 17, 2010
MSNBC May 16, 2010

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Categories
Herbs & Plants

Quackgrass (Agropyron repens)

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Botanical Name : Elymus repens
Family:    Poaceae
Genus:    Elymus
Species:    E. repens
Kingdom:    Plantae
Order:    Poales

Other common names:.Dog grass, couch grass, quitch grass, quake grass, scutch grass, twitch grass, witch grass, wheatgrass, creeping wheatgrass, devil’s grass, durfa grass, durfee grass, Dutch grass, Fin’s grass, chandler’s grass, couch grass,twitch, quick grass, quitch grass (also just quitch), dog grass, quackgrass, scutch grass, and witchgrass.

Habitat and range. Quack grass is  native to most of Europe, Asia, the Arctic , and northwest Africa.   Like many of our weeds, quack grass was introduced from Europe and is now one of the worst pests with which the farmer has to contend, taking possession of cultivated ground and crowding out valuable crops. It occurs most abundantly from Maine to Maryland, westward to Minnesota and Missouri, and is spreading on farms on the Pacific slope, but is rather sparingly distributed in the South.

Part used. The rootstocks, collected in the spring, are carefully cleaned, cut into small pieces about a fourth of an inch long, and dried.

Description. Couch grass is a very common perennial species of grass. It is rather coarse, 1 to 3 feet high, and when in flower resembles rye or beardless wheat. Its smooth hollow stems, which are thickened at the joints, are produced from a long, creeping rootstock. The flowering heads are produced from July to September.

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It has creeping rhizomes which enable it to grow rapidly across grassland. It has flat, hairy leaves with upright flower spikes. The stems (‘culms’) grow to 40–150 cm tall; the leaves are linear, 15–40 cm long and 3–10 mm broad at the base of the plant, with leaves higher on the stems 2–8.5 mm broad. The flower spike is 10–30 cm long, with spikelets 1–2 cm long, 5–7 mm broad and 3 mm thick with three to eight florets. The glumes are 7–12 mm long, usually without an awn or with only a short one.

It flowers at the end of June through to August in the northern hemisphere

It has become naturalized throughout much of the world. It is a recognized as a notoriously invasive weed. This weed is famously difficult to remove from garden environments. One method is to dig deep into the ground in order to remove as much of the grass as possible. The area should then be covered with a thick layer of woodchips. To further prevent re-growth cardboard can be placed underneath the woodchips. The long, white rhizomes will, however, dry out and die if left on the surface.

The caterpillars of some Lepidoptera use it as a foodplant, e.g. the Essex Skipper(Thymelicus lineola).

Propagation:Easily regenerates from very small broken rhizome fragments making mechanical control difficult

Harvesting
: Common spreading weed, root is creeping yellow scaly stem, mucilaginous, elastic. It travels horizontally to populate new areas of the garden periodically sending up new green shoots as well as putting down more wiry roots. Found in disturbed and settled areas, lawns, gardens, fields etc. Rhizome should be unearthed in spring or early summer before the new growth becomes tough and dry. Wash carefully and dry in the shade.

Medical use
Couch Grass has been used in herbal medicine since the Classical period. Sick dogs are known to dig up and eat the root, and medieval herbalists used it to treat inflamed bladders, painful urination and water retention. It also has antiseptic properties.

Agropyron repens Used for urinary infections such as cystitis and prostatitis. The demulcent properties soothe irritated and inflamed tissues, thus may help with kidney stones and in the treatment of enlarged prostate glands. As a tonic diuretic it is used with other herbs for rheumatism. Herbalists often use it as an anti-microbial and demulcent for acne, used both internally and as an external wash.

Instructions: Use a decoction of the rhizome (2 tsp to the cup) taken 3 times a day. Tincture of the rhizome 30-60 drops three times a day.

Properties: Demulcent, diuretic, anti-microbial, tonic. Contains carbohydrates, mucilage, acid, potassium, volatile oils.

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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elymus_repens
http://www.lyraesherbpages.homestead.com/medicinalherbsQ-Z.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/herbhunters/quackgrass.html

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