(Now for Michael Moore, who only covers western species)
Appearance and Habitat: Two characteristics separate Pines and other conifers such as spruce, fir, and Douglas fir. In Pine trees the needles are in bundles of two or more with a tiny papery sheath surrounding the base of the bundles. The only exception on the needles in bundles is P. monophylla which has only one needle per bundle. The cones of Pines are woody and stiffer than those of the spruces. The cones of the firs stand up-right in contrast to the hanging position of the pines. In the west most pines are found from 5,000 feet to the timber line. The pinion needing the least amount of moisture is the lowest in elevation, then the yellow pine and ponderosa belts.
Medicinal Uses: The Pine needles make an excellent tasting tea that are a diuretic and expectorant. The bark also makes an excellent tea after being boiled slowly with a bit of honey added. The bark tea is an even stronger expectorant and should be used after the feverish infectious stage of a chest cold. The pitch is the strongest expectorant of all, chew and swallow a pea sized piece and before long there will be a general softening of the mucus in your bronchial air ways. The chewing and swallowing pitch the also acts as a urinary tract disinfectant. Pitch is also useful in removing splinters, glass, or other skin invaders. Warm the pitch over a stove or campfire with butter or fat added, and when it is warmed slightly paste it over the splinter or glass invader. Overnight the splinter should come out, because the antibiotic resins in the pitch tend to speed up the body’s response to removing the object. Expect it to throb for several hours as the body is building up a defense, but within 24 hours it should be easy to remove with no need of further disinfectant.
Medical Plants of the Mountain West 2nd Edition by Michael Moore, page 195 – 197, Publisher: New Mexico Press
Common Name: Sweet Clover, Mililot, Yellow Sweet Clover, White Sweet Cover, Alfalfon
Latin Name: Melilotus officinalus, M. alba
Appearance and Habitat: It is a typical three-leaved clover growing form two to five feet in height, sometimes larger in stream beds. It is indistinguishable from alfalfa prior to blooming. They do tend to grow taller and stemmier in the summer than alfalfa. The flowers are found in little spikes and have an aroma reminiscent of violet and vanilla. The yellow variety flowers before the white. The plants flower from early summer to the first snows in late autumn. Miles of mountain roadside are often covered with the plants.(1)Small, somewhat pea-like flowers, fragrant when crushed, are in long, slender, cylindrical, spike-like clusters rising in the leaf axils on a bushy plant. This tall, introduced legume has the fragrance of new-mown hay when crushed. Both this plant and yellow Sweet Clover (M. officinalis) are widely used as pasture crops for nitrogen enrichment of the soil. They are also highly valued as honey plants as suggested by the genus name from meli, a Greek word meaning honey.(2) It is not frost tender. It is in flower from Jul to September. It can fix nitrogen. The plant prefers neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. and can grow in saline soils. It cannot grow in the shade.It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought.(3)
Warnings: The dried leaves can be toxic, though fresh leaves are quite safe. This is do to the presence of courmarin, the substance that gives some dried plants the smell of new mown hay, if taken internally it can prevent the blood from clotting.(4)Edible Uses: Root. Consumed as a food by the Kalmuks. Young shoots – cooked. Used like asparagus. Young leaves are eaten in salads. The leaves and seedpods are cooked as a vegetable. They are used as a flavouring. Only fresh leaves should be used, see the notes above on toxicity. The crushed dried leaves can be used as a vanilla flavouring in puddings, pastries etc. Caution is advised, see the notes above on toxicity. Flowers – raw or cooked. The flowers and seeds are used as a flavouring. The flowers also give an aromatic quality to some tisanes.(5)
Medicinal Uses: Melilot, used either externally or internally, can help treat varicose veins and haemorrhoids though it requires a long-term treatment for the effect to be realised. Use of the plant also helps to reduce the risk of phlebitis and thrombosis. Melilot contains coumarins and, as the plant dries or spoils, these become converted to dicoumarol, a powerful anticoagulant. Thus the plant should be used with some caution, it should not be prescribed to patients with a history of poor blood clotting or who are taking warfarin medication. See also the notes above on toxicity. The flowering plant is antispasmodic, aromatic, carminative, diuretic, emollient, mildly expectorant, mildly sedative and vulnerary. An infusion is used in the treatment of sleeplessness, nervous tension, neuralgia, palpitations, varicose veins, painful congestive menstruation, in the prevention of thrombosis, flatulence and intestinal disorders. Externally, it is used to treat eye inflammations, rheumatic pains, swollen joints, severe bruising, boils and erysipelas, whilst a decoction is added to the bath-water. The flowering plant is harvested in the summer and can be dried for later use. A distilled water obtained from the flowering tops is an effective treatment for conjunctivitis .(6) It is best to pick when first in flower to avoid the stems from growing during the summer. The stems become tough when dried and only the dried plant is used. It is a traditional external poultice for sore breasts and mild mastitis, as well as other soft tissue inflammations. The tea is used throughout Europe as a stomach soother and for chronic flatulence, especially after an intestinal infection. The tea has a pleasant vanilla flavor. Care should be taken in long term use of the tea because of the Coumarin. Coumarin can combine with prescription drugs resulting in unpredictable compounds. One of the basic anti-coagulant drugs is bishydroxycoumarin (Dicumarol) which was discovered by accident when a rash of fatal internal bleeding among cattle was found to have been due to the eating of rotten Sweet Clover that had been bundled before properly drying. The bales fermented and the wet plants turned the coumarin into bishydroxycoumarin. (7)
Foot Notes: (1, 7) Medicinal Plants Of the Mountain West by Michael Moore, 1st Edition, page 152, publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press ; copy right 1979 ISBN 0-89013-104-X
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