Is it possible to get a list of which plants are on our Materia Medica? As I clean my garden beds and plan for next year, I'd like to take into consideration which of my plants (and "weeds") are on the list. I also plan to be taking hikes in the Lehigh Valley and in the Adirondacks in the next few weeks and might want to take some photos of plants in their fall splendor. Thanks!

Hi Sarah, That's an admin question and the answer is that before we begin each section I'll post a listing of those herbs that you'll be studying in that section. Those lists aren't finalized until then, so there is no listing I can give beforehand. Thanks! Eileen

As I head out to my garden, I'd like to update my reason for the materia medica question. As we all know, some plants thrive well in certain environments and tis the season of everything going to seed. I am a very "permissive" gardener and as usual, some of my plants have thrived too well. Before I relegate many of these "thrivers" to the local "weed" recycling center (my compost is not hot enough to digest seeds), I'd be interested to know if some of them should be harvested rather than discarded. Some of the plants that are growing in inconvenient places could be gifted to other gardeners in the spring. Although I have an extensive herbal reference library, I never know which books to rely on for tried-and-true remedies. My garden can't wait for 2 years as I diligently complete our course! Examples of herbs/weeds I have in overabundance are sweet Annie (love the smell and lovely for wreaths but the plants are huge in the middle of arnica and narrow leaf echinacea), mallow, horsetail (I can key it out), melissa, evening primrose (yes, I know it's a weed, but the goldfinches also love it), burdock, yellow (or curly not sure) dock, pokeweed, deadly nightshade, and lots of varieties of mints. I thought knowing which plants are on our materia medica might help me decide which plants to "tame" in my very wild-looking herb gardens. If not the materia medica, which of the herb books on our list might give me the best idea of which herbs to keep or to tame.

I've narrowed down my question once again. I spent time this morning comparing my herb books with the ones on your list. I have the Weiss/Fintelmann Herbal Medicine 2nd edition from 2000. I also have David Hoffmann's Honest Herbal from 1997 and ordered his Medical Herbalism book today. A reference that I've found useful that's no longer published is the PDR for Herbal Medicines. I was noticing in all of these references that evening primrose is used as the oil and since I don't plan to do any cold pressing, I'll probably continue to keep it out of my herb gardens as much as possible and keep it at the fringes of the garden. Do you know of any medicinal uses of artemisia annua? I love the smell and do use it for wreaths but just wondered since it loves my yard.

Sweet Annie is a useful medicinal, but plant at the edge of the garden. Mallow (not use very much unless you are talking about Marshmallow (althea officinalis), horsetail useful plant highly aggressive weed(I can key it out), Melissa I have it everywhere, and use it a lot, but you can weed it from areas where it is outcompeting plants you want, Evening Primrose is a very useful medicine - the leaves, root bark or flowers, Burdock - both the seed and roots are medicinal and highly useful, plant in waste places outside of the garden, Yellow and Curly Dock are the same plant, the root is a useful medicine, grow in waste places with Poke, and Burdock, not in your garden, Pokeweed is useful but potentially toxic, do not grow in your garden, grow in waste places, Deadly Nightshade not useful and toxic. The PDR for Herbal Medicines is NOT a good book.

Thanks so much for your feedback. When I first started planting this garden when we moved here in the mid 1990's, I planted a lot of plants I had heard about to learn more about them. My experience with plants that "outcompete" matches your feedback. I look forward to learning how to make use of the incredible bounty in my yard. I have a Manual of Vascular Plants by Gleason and Cronquist, so can try to key out my horsetail, but wonder are some more useful than others? I've given up trying to rip out the root systems, but try to get out as much as possible when I'd like to get it out of an area of my garden. Sweet Annie tried to overwhelm my echinacea anguvstifolia and arnica plants this year. Amazing root systems! Thanks also for letting me know your thoughts about the PDR for Herbal Medicines. By the way, I believe the mallow I mentioned is althea officanalis. It likes to reseed in my gardens, so I have to get out and cut off the seeds before I have even more out there!

It looks like I have equisetum hymenale. I still am interested to know if all of the equiseta have similar properties. I'm sure I'll learn all this as we go along of course.