Herbs face to face.....

The rain was coming down, finally, the grounds parched epidermis getting a good moisturising soak. I sat on the outside couch gazing at the garden beds and greenery. I thought to make an experiment in my calm state, looking at the plants i selected one, the maidenhair fern, and wondered if I could gauge her medicinal uses simply by listening and connecting.

I looked at her soft leaves, and the shape they hold, branching like lungs. Respiratory soother I absent mindedly pondered, soothing and soft, perhaps healer of red sore inflamed skin. I continued to gaze, then got off my butt and pulled out a medicinal plants of Australia book, just to see...

Adiantum peltatum has been used in Europe and elsewhere under the name of 'sirop de capillaire' in diseases of the chest, our common maidenhair fern the one I was sitting with, Adiantum aethiopicum, has been used for the same purpose, as an infusion of one to five parts of plant to 100 parts water. Clever plant.....

Was this how it all started, the plants teaching us experientially? Duh. There is something different in relating to a plant growing nearby you, than a dried plant part thats come a ways to get to you.Which is why localised lore is such a beautyfull way to relate to our environment, and people have worked to preserve it.

I tried the same experiment with dried celery seed, but I was off the mark. I kept getting 'nourishment', as in the goodness of homemade stocks and soups, what I read said sleep inducement, aid to divination and concentration, a sometime ingredient in flying salves. All forms of nourishment, but the informations not as accurate as with the fern.This is why I want to grow the herbs i work with, and work with the herbs I grow, to get to know them face to face...