I waited until the rain stopped and the land dried, Its late afternoon and the Burrs country park in Bury, Lancashire is still busy. The cafe is closing and the campsite awaiting to reopen as lock down eases. All along the East lancs steam railway track that runs through the park big patches of magenta strike out from the July uniformity of the land which has lost some of its colour now the blossom has died back. The Burrs country park was once an industrial site, the old cotton mill and bleach works as you enter the park now are just patches of stone walls and water filled pits, some with signposts indicating where things used to be; The Mill, the water wheel, gas storage and the midden. The cottages and pub still remain along with one lone factory chimney next to the car park. Its now a tourist destination with its own caravan club campsite and very much loved by local people as a recreation area. All along the cobbled road, the canal and river Irwell big lush swathes of Rosebay Willow Herb (Epilobium angustifolium) also known as Fireweed provide colour and suggest that these areas were once burnt in some way.

I cut long stalks of Fireweed and hand them to my partner Pete to carry as I climb down a slippery bank to harvest more, hoping I dont fall. The spikes of blossoms are delicate and a vivid pink in some patches and their intensity on this dull day catchs my eye. We harvest as much as we can carry and take them back to the car. Later as the day cools to evening and its still dry and light I sit in the back garden to pull off the leaves and flowers to seperated them from the long stalks. Stripping off the outer covering of the stems I lay them to one side to dry for cordage. The pink flecked, straw colored, waxy plant fibre makes a lovely cordage that I like to use for wrapping special things, its always much prettier than the willow, nettle, lime and bramble cordages I often make. Laughing, Pete and myself take a knife and slitting the stems in half we expose the pith. We ease it out and put it in our mouths, it tastes like sweet cucumber that gets mucilaginous as we hold it in our mouths. I’ve read it can give a sugar buzz but we didnt feel it. In indigenous cultures this was seen as a valuble food and I read somewhere the pith is used to bake Indian ice cream for indigenous tribes in North America. Rosebay willow herb really is an amazing plant and revered in native cultures in the northern hemisphere, somtimes being so revered it forms part of the creation stories and in one tribe represented the first totem pole. We like to think that for all its amazing uses our ancestors would have used it too, only we have lost the memory.

Rosebay Willowherb is a tall 1.5m perennial with stunning magenta flower spikes is a familiar sight in summer and can be found in parks, hedgerows, derelict ground, along railways and is classed as a weed. Ecologically is has a use in helping to repair and regenerate damaged, traumatised and burnt earth. After the second world war it covered the bombsites, earning the name "Bomb weed." I find it hard to believe that this stunning plant, beloved of first nations people in Alaska, Canada and Siberia is just considered a weed here and very rarely used in herbal medicine.

For first nations people it it is a valuable food, healing tea, fire lighting material, waterproofing for mittens, cordage and effective medicine, being used both internally and externally. The fermented leaves, once imported to the UK from Russia was a delicious tea (Kapoori tea) and was popular here before Indian and China tea became our national drink.

Bruised Rosebay Willowherb to ferment to make tea with.

Rosebay Willowherb is Full of vitamin A, C and with a plethora of anti oxidants it tastes like a nice quality green tea, looks prettier and is easy to make at home from the flowers and leaves. Rosebay Willowherb is also an excellent herb for the digestive tract with a history use with infectious diarrhoea and was once the favourite herb of the American eclectic physicians in treating cholera, typhoid and dysentry. This is due to both its anti microbial, and astringent properties. Its also has an anti-inflammatory effect on the bowel so helpful at managing ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis and ulcers.

Looking at recent research, I'm finding that Rosebay Willowherb apart from being anti bacterial and anti viral, has an anti fungal action too and was effective against all the nine fungal species tested in the study. Of note it is particularly effective in treating Candida, with a pre-biotic effect that can help support normal gut flora. Native people use it to help with the "green diarrhoea" that come with the transition from the winter diet of grain and meat to the summer diet of vegetables and fruit. Its ant- inflammatory, astringent and healing effects should make it very useful in helping Irritable Bowel Syndrome too. I'm thinking of this time in our history when we have a prevalence of damage to the human microbiome, not just to the overuse of antibiotics, but from the glyphosates in our food and environment, sugar, mercury in fillings, processed foods, chlorinated water etc. This can lead to an overgrowth of unhelpful gut bacteria, Candida being only one species. How helpful of Mother earth to provide us with a medicine to help us with fungal over growth and damaged guts from dysbiosis.

Apart from being good digestive medicine its been used traditionally for an enlarged prostate gland, prostate cancer, heavy periods, asthma and whooping cough, and it has a immuno-modulating properties too, and when extracts of Rosebay Willowherb are studied in labs it was found to be effective against the flu virus, improving mortality and survival rates. Extracts of Fireweed has even been patented by a pharmaceutical company for its anti-tumour activity.

Fireweed is excellent too in skin care, being good in a salve for cuts, burns, rashes, acne, eczema and psoriasis and is used commercially in skin care products. Some studies show it has an anti-inflammatory effects on the skin which has been shown to be comparable with steroid creams. One of my friends tried a salve on her psoriasis and said it made a difference in healing the plaques and reducing itching. Native people have used the mashed up root for boils, infections and abceses, the leaves were plastered on bruises.

As a hydrosol it can be used effectively as a skin wash for Burns, irritated and itchy skin and is also anti bacterial.

Having tasted the pith which is a little like cucumber and once eating the new shoots, it seems a shame that we seem to have lost our cultural memory of how useful a medicine and food Rosebay Willowherb really is. Not only this but as cordage and a fibre once made into nets, as well as a wick for lamps, wilderness bandage, and coffee from the roots. Yet again we are relying on first Nations people of the Northern Boreal forests to remind us of the magnificent of our abundant local plants and how to appreciate what we have on our own doorstep here in Bury.

What I find of particularly interests, is its its emotional uses. Herbalists using it as a flower essence, tell of its potency in treating burn out, PTSD and of its ability to help us reconnect to the earth again. I'm thinking of the collective damage done here not just to the land but of humanity too, especially in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic that has had such an impact on people not just of this land but globally. That deep damage from fear, isolation, hardship, poverty, grief, and loss. Damage so deep it has disconnected us from the Earth and each other so much, that we are trying unconsciously heal that loss with material things and becuae of this are willing to damage the land that supports us. There are those who say that the land provides the medicine that's needed close to the sickness. Mother earth certainly knows that we are sick and this sickness is collective and deep in our DNA. She is providing a powerful healing medicine that we need here during these times of disconnection, trauma and collective PTSD.

Thanks to Nikki Darrell from http://veriditashibernica.org/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045895/

https://www.academia.edu/9659653/MINI_REVIEW_Fireweed_A_treasured_medicine_of_the_boreal

Fireweed - The Herb of Regeneration

Late Autumn medicines; leaves, roots, herbs and spices

Plantain- The Sacred Herb under our feet.