I am piece by piece pulling together my herbs, my blog, and my wits to begin Under Root Healing. I have just moved from Boston to the beautiful Portland, Maine. I have a lovely herb room in my new apartment, ready for herbal adventures and consultations! Now, I just need to unpack!
In the midst of the moving and unpacking I have found myself feeling ungrounded and quite unsure of what is next. I am beginning a new life which is both exciting and scary. I have certainly found the need for some grounding practices in my days.
I made a cup of wood betony tea today and immediately felt as if my toes had grown roots into my new soil. Wood betony seems to have this magical power to send one right into the earth. If you need grounding, wood betony is definitely the herb for you.
Wood betony stimulates circulation, nourishes the brain and heart, and aids digestion and the urinary tract. It is good for any pain or imbalance in the brain and heart, both physically and psycho-spiritually. It is good for one whose stress is stuck in their head by allowing one to let go of the intellect. Wood betony nourishes the solar plexus, thus aiding digestion. In doing so, it helps us get in touch with our gut instincts.
Typically the leaves and flowers are used for the medicinal intake of wood betony. It is native to eastern North America. If you wanted to make a tea of wood betony, you would use the fresh or dried herb and pour boiling water over it and allow to steep at least for 15 minutes. I love to do a longer infusion of several hours or overnight. If you would be interested in getting some wood betony, feel free to contact me! I have plenty of the dried herb in my cupboard!
Wood betony has certainly been calling to me as I transition to this new life in a new place. A daily cup of wood betony tea seems to be just the rub for settling in.
The picture you have is actually either swamp lousewort Pedicularis lanceolata or canadian louseword Pedicularis canadensis. Although these are sometimes called 'wood betony', the real 'wood betony' is a european plant Stachys officionalis. Because of not using Latin names, people have made a muck of things in historical botanical literature and research. I'm betting the plant you have is canadian lousewort. I'm in NC and there's a lot of swamp lousewort around. It's a parasite on birch trees.
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