Wooly Burdock, you had me at weight loss!
One of the paintings in my new series on Edible weeds is the Wooly Burdock flower head…. up close and personal.  What is wooly burdock?  Have you ever noticed large gigantic leaves like something out of Jurassic Park growing along pathways?  At certain times you may also have noticed these plants produce  interesting pink flowers sitting atop small spikey balls or burs. Meet Wooly Burdock otherwise known as cotton burdock or downy burdock or just plain burdock.  As kids we use to take great delight in throwing the seed balls at each other and watch as the balls stuck to clothes. Not so much fun though if it got caught in your hair!
I’ve discovered this unassuming weed that grows in ditches and places where the soil has been disturbed is a virtual drug store. The list of medicinal benefits include: blood purifier, improves skin conditions such as acne and eczema, helps soothe sore throats and dry coughs, relieves congestion in chest and nasal passages, (stop me any time…) improves hair and scalp conditioning, improves digestive health, promotes weight loss, lowers blood sugars, improves lipid profiles, treats gout, treats kidney and gall stones, provides anti-inflammatory properties and may slow down blood clotting. Basically burdock is a powerhouse that can decrease the workload of the immune system so the body can heal itself.

 

After reading the list of medicinal benefits of burdock root I remembered the box of herbal tea I found in my tea cupboard. There pushed to the back of the cupboard and hidden by the Tetley box was a box of Burdock Tea, probably left by our daughter who loves to encourage our good health.  I thought “what have I got to lose?”  My immune system could certainly use the boost!

 

So…. while I sip on my Burdock Tea, I’ll research why this lowly wildflower has made its way to the “wanted” list of invasive weeds and earned a reputation for being such an obnoxious noxious weed.

To your good health Jen … and mine!!

Cheers!