A Bike And Hike Herbalism Session

Jay Jay Jeffery
Aug 28, 2017 · 5 min read

Not far from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, I feel blessed to call this my home. And on a whim a few of us rode our bikes up into those hills, parked them at the base of a hike and made a short trek into natural immersion. The suburbs fall off into dry fields full of a familiar lovely sweet smell. It’s the smell of gumweed.

Yellow flowers with Velcro looking seed pods that have a sticky sap that smells so sweet and good. According to my book, Plants of the Rocky Mountains,

the leaves were used as tea and the ground up flowers help against poison ivy. And the plant extracts are used for asthma other respiratory ailments. I have not tried these but they smell wonderful and are very prevalent in our foothills.

In one small area you can find a ton of variety. Just a quick look at this picture:

I can see over 5 different plants and probably more grasses. As I said in one of my first posts on Steemit, I’m not so confident on grass identification, but I’d like to be. They are so gorgeous, take a look at the variety I picked after a short hike through the Boise foothills.

Looking closer at those 5 plants in the photo above, I can see more gumweed, sage, rose, goldenrod, and another I don’t know yet but I will here in a minute when I look it up.

This here is a closer look at the sage in the photo above. It’s the light grey green colored one:

Pretty beautiful really. According to the book this variety is called Prairie Sage or Western Mugwort. As many of us know, sage is often dried and used as an incense as well as believed to ward off evil spirits. While burning sage as incense is a fairly well known use, sage can be used as a tea, wash, or snuff! It’s not just a pretty plant, it’s also pretty useful.

Then there’s the rose.

You can’t help loving the narcissistic rose. This small plant even has a gorgeous plump red hip! The only variety of rose in my book is the prickly rose, I can’t tell you if that’s the variety here, but it’s certainly a rose. I know their hips are very high in vitamins but not the best to eat because of all the gut irritating seeds inside.

My best guess on the next plant is that it’s some variety of goldenrod. It was much shorter than the goldenrod I found in a Utah forest a few weeks back but looks similar to what I know as goldenrod.

The book describes 5 different goldenrod varieties, even stating that it’s difficult to tell them apart. It does have the lance shaped leaves and the silly little yellow flowers in a bunch both characteristics that tell me it’s what I think it is. I’ve made a tea from both fresh and dry flowers that is good for kidney health (and more but that’s what I use it for). It feels empowering to drink as well as happy and enlivening, a touch of the Saint John’s Wort happiness in my opinion. And those little flowers are bright and sunny.

This next plant is not one I immediately identified.

Looking it up I think that I’m … still not sure! I should have saved a leaf but I just don’t see any plants in the book that really fit the build. I’m not sure if those stalks of pods are going to turn into flowers or seeds. This plant was abundant though and reminded me of lambs quarters except that it was much more substantial than any lambs quarters that I’ve pulled in my own yard. The other plant in the book that could be what’s pictured here is Common Hound’s Tongue, which should have more lance like leaves than the one I found. I guess I’m just not sure.
All that from one picture of a small area of the hike!

I have to share my favorite flower find though. The Dotted Blazing Star …

Here’s the one I found on the hike…

Later I found some that were a variety of pink shades including one that was almost white! I love seeing the variations, or the different individual plants while on a hike. As you can read from the entry of the book above, these have a number of medicinal uses as well! I didn’t pick any… maybe next time I will. There were a ton! If my camera hadn’t died I’d have shown you more!

Last but certainly not least …

Do you see what I see? I sure hope so, because it’s poison ivy! Hidden so inconspicuously in the field that an unsuspecting hiker would really have a bad day with this. Except wait, don’t we have some gumweed nearby for that! (;

Hope you enjoyed the hike. Didn’t get to grab a shot of the sunset or the view for you. It was gorgeous. Next time I will, promise.

If you live or travel in the Rocky Mountains, you really should check out that plant guide, “Plants of the Rocky Mountains.” It’s an amazingly comprehensive guide!

)

Written by

Living in an 80sqft VW Van. Interested in city planning, live music, herbalism, writing, experience, crypto, and small business

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade