By Janelle Eklund
While walking through the field behind my house I encountered an old looking plant staring up at me. The yellow eye of the flower was surrounded by petals of disheveled looking white hair. Long slender leaves surrounded the base with some smaller ones climbing up the stem. The lower part of the leaves, the stems, and the bracts surrounding the flower head were covered with scattered short unshaven beard-like white hairs. Fleabane, looking like a 90 year old, was actually in its prime.
The scientific name is derived from Greek. 'Eri' means early and 'geron' means aged person, both referring to the 'worn out' look of the plant. Supposedly the common name 'Fleabane' got its name because it was believed to drive away fleas, plus its small seeds resemble fleas.
Fleabane is in the Aster family, blooming in spring and lasting most of the summer. I have also seen it growing in a gravelly area near Silver Lake on the McCarthy Road. There are many species of fleabane. I didn't take a real close look and compare to figure out the species, but the one at Silver Lake was shorter than the one in the field by my house.
According to the referenced web site below the properties of the fleabane "contain a bitter extractive, tannic and gallic acids and a volatile oil. It acts as an astringent, diuretic tonic. It is considered useful in gravel, diabetes, dropsy and many kidney diseases and is also used to alleviate diarrhea and dysentery.... It was once also used to alleviate inflamed tonsils and sore throats."
Find beauty even in disheveled worn out looking plants.
From my light to yours-
Who We Are
WISEfriends are several writers connected with Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment, a nonprofit organization located in Alaska's Copper River Valley. Most of these articles originally appeared in our local newspaper, the Copper River Record.