Species At-Risk-determine vulnerability to over harvest wild medicinals

VickiP
VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭
edited October 2020 in Endangered Species

https://unitedplantsavers.org/species-at-risk-list/ A good list of commonly harvested medicinals that are at risk of over harvesting

Also, if you are interested in a more scientific approach to this subject https://unitedplantsavers.org/species-at-risk-assessment-tool/ This tool is to help determine if a particular plant is in danger of being over harvested. (This uses Excel) I love this site, it is very informative with loads of free downloads.

Comments

  • EarlKelly
    EarlKelly Posts: 230 ✭✭✭

    I have huge stands of mayapple on our home farm. Watched it expand now for the last forty years. We do have ginseng on our farm also. Have only dug a few plants in all these years, usually when I find it I will bury the seeds nearby so they don’t get eaten. Interesting list. Thanks

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    I have a number of the plants listed as well. We have decided to let things grow as nature intended. So they are in no to very little risk here. I also never take everything and always replant roots or berries as I go.

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    @siobhanashmole Those are great "rules of thumb!" The ethics behind them would apply to mushroom hunting as well.

  • Nancy A.Maurelli
    Nancy A.Maurelli Posts: 44 ✭✭✭

    I was taught to always ask permission from the plant before wildharvesting. Also to not take too much from the periphery of a colony. And perhaps it goes without saying, to make sure that the plant is growing in an area where it is safe to harvest (i.e., not contaminated from air/water/electromagnetic pollution, ground water with high bacteria content, etc.).

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    @siobhanashmole Great list! There are a few good guidelines you included that I hadn't heard of before.

    Learning as much as you can about the plants around you is another way of empowering yourself to do without those At-Risk plants. Many plants are anti this or that or help you to do such and such, we just don't know it. There are plants in America that do the same thing as the plants in Africa, but we have yet to have the knowledge of our communities/environment to utilize them.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @frogvalley Excellent point about knowing the plants around you. People tend to jump on "new" herbs or treatments that are indeed, great plants, but often come from far away. When I am doing plant walks, I try to impress upon people that local is better. We walk on the same earth they grow in, breathe the same air and drink the same water (usually). So they are energetically more compatible with our needs. This is not to say that I don't use herbs from outside of my area cause somethings may need a specialised herb but on the whole I believe that local is better. And, like you say, it is empowering to be able to provide for your medical needs in your immediate environment. Almost every medicine that I require either grows in the wild or is something that I can grow in my garden

    @siobhanashmole I am curious as to the type of gift that might be appropriate in your part of the world? Some Indigenous cultures in North America might leave a bit of tobacco or sage. I know others that will use a piece of their own hair. I was taught as a child to leave a coin.

  • tilathehunn
    tilathehunn Posts: 168 ✭✭✭

    I love this topic. I want to print a copy of the "rules" since they vary from my practice and could easily and safely be incorporated.

    2 points: water is Always a nice gift to leave for a plant.

    Couple of my harvesting methods, if it doesn't "feel right", don't do it. Also leave the plant looking better than it did before you got there, ie prune back some if needed, also no one should be able to tell you were there.

  • tilathehunn
    tilathehunn Posts: 168 ✭✭✭

    This leads to another thought...what to do if you catch someone not ethically harvesting...i will start a new topic.

  • John
    John Posts: 163 ✭✭✭

    I learned a lot from this discussion. The Earth needs us to pay attention and do things right-thanks to all.

  • dmthennessy
    dmthennessy Posts: 29 ✭✭✭

    People need to be informed about over-harvesting. I hope with spreading of knowledgeable information that the world will become wise. Great hope!

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,936 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Cool website! Because of over harvesting, I am trying to grow my own plants that is if I can find the seeds, otherwise I purchase my herbs from places like MRH that have sustainability practices in place.

  • Suburban Pioneer
    Suburban Pioneer Posts: 339 ✭✭✭

    Excellent discussion! It can take some effort to find out if a particular company is harvesting ethically or not, or using only farm-grown herbs. Are there any energy or potency differences between wild grown and farm grown? I have adopted several at-risk medicinals and other plants specifically so that I can help them establish themselves in a safe place while I can have their medicine close at hand should I ever need it.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @Suburban Pioneer There is the suggestion that the plant has chosen the right place to grow. It depends on where you are harvesting, though. Lots of "weeds" will grow by roadsides, train tracks, industrial sites, etc. Just because those plants have chosen that location doesn't mean that it is a good one for harvesting. But if you are comparing an area that is truly "wild" to a garden or farm, most herbalist that I know prefer to harvest medicinals in the wild whenever possible.

    But we make do with what we have. If you don't have access to safe wild plants or want a particular plant that is endangered, then the next best choice is to grow them in your garden. Sometimes they will choose to plant themselves in your garden. I have mullein coming up everywhere along with dandelion, chickweed and plantain that are all self seeded from the wild. Some of the plants considered weeds, actually need cultivated soil to grow in, so by providing a garden space, you are encouraging them to grow.

  • Ruth Ann Reyes
    Ruth Ann Reyes Posts: 577 admin

    Wow! I'm also surprised by this list!

  • Suburban Pioneer
    Suburban Pioneer Posts: 339 ✭✭✭

    Hi, Torey I think the "suggestion" is right on! I let my plants re-seed freely, and the cabbages and mustard in particular have migrated and established themselves in places where they appear to be pretty happy. A big, hilarious and rather permanent looking patch of 'kalebages' (random cabbage x kale cross) has planted itself on the east side of our property, far from where I originally tried to plant both kale and cabbages. Calendula has happily spread from one small back garden patch to EVERYWHERE. Greek oregano and winter savory have escaped the herb garden and are thriving on the other side of the path in the rose and medicinals area, and mullein tries to grow anywhere there's an open sliver of sandy ground. Narrow-leaf plantain invited itself in and now cheerfully tries to conquer the cultivated area of the front yard, red poppies come from down the street and visit the east fenceline occasionally, and two wormwoods showed up and started taking over our big retaining wall bed, so they had to go, sadly. It's really fascinating to see what's out there and which things mysteriously find their way into your space, and how they decide amongst themselves which ones will take which patches of ground.