Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines: Chimaphila, Pipsissewa

judsoncarroll4

https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/p/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-8a9

Torey

You've covered a lot in this discussion about Pipsissewa. As herbalists, sometimes we focus on one use for a plant and forget about all the other great uses.

Here we called it Prince's Pine more often than Pipsissewa but both names are used.

There are two species here in BC. Chimaphila umbellata and C. menzsiesii (Menzie's Pipsissewa). C. umbellata is a bit taller and C. menziesii has paler flowers. But they are used interchangeably. We have so much Uva ursi that it is much more commonly used as a diuretic but if I had a child or elder person that I was treating, then I would use Chimaphila as it isn't as harsh as Uva ursi.

So many great diuretics within the Ericaceae family.

I haven't had the opportunity to try making a scratch rootbeer yet but Chimaphila is supposed to be a good addition especially if I want to try to duplicate a recipe using nothing but local ingredients.

judsoncarroll4

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/922914#Comment_922914

That is cool - I hadn't considered including it in root beer! We have a lot of spotted wintergreen here, which is a fairly mild pipsissewa that has a good, wintergreen like flavor. I may have to try that!