Manzanita

Manzanita

Prescott National Forest, Arizona

A member off the Heath family (Ericaceae), this gorgeously tangled shrub is related to Cranberry and Madrone, and offers similarly healing attributes. It's a sister like plant to Uva-Ursi, who I first learned as Bearberry while living and learning in Oregon. According to many of my herbal predecessors, these two are practically interchangeable in their abilities. Michael Moore says that if one isn't growing in your neck of the woods, just look for the other, and it's probably there. "Remember that Manzanita is an analog to Uva Ursi; if Manzanita is uncommon where you live, go into the mountains and you will probably found Uva Ursi. Where the latter isn't found is usually where you find Manzanita. Only in the deserts are both missing." p 158.

Manzanita is one of the most striking plants growing in Arizona. The bark is a deep rusty red, somewhere between glossy and matte in its finish. The contrast with its lichen colored leaves and subdued hues of flower and berry gives this plant an ethereal feeling, as if it glows softly within its own aura, the way one might expect an angel to appear. Its branches tangle, and the way it creates dense thickets in high desert forests reminds me of one other thing only: the rhododendron forests of Appalachia.

Unripened Berries

I would not be surprised to learn that indigenous Arizonans have legeneds of elementals living within these Manzanita thickets, as I've heard innumerable tales of the little people in the Rhodies during my time on the Appalachian trail and at herbal and folkoric events in the South. According to Charles Kane, Peter Bigfoot, and Michael Moore, the Manzanitas can appear as small shrubs at around 3 ft, but with enough moisture, can grow up to 30. I surmise it would be a thoughtless task to lose one's way within the branches of a Manzanita so massive.

Manzanita Branches

This plant has a specific affinity for healing and restoring the water organs in our bodies, namely kidneys, bladder, and womb. A primary constituent, Arbutin is a glycoside which is converted to hydroquinone in the presence of alkaline urine (7.0 on the pH scale).  An acidic environment is preferred in these watery areas to keep E. Coli in check, the bacteria that when prolific, causes urinary tract infections. The leaves contain large amounts of tannin, an astringent constituent that lends itself to tightening tissues that have lost tone - due to age, childbirth, recurring infection, etc. This is likely the reason it is a known vasoconstrictor. Manzanita leaves therefore can be useful in excessive menstrual bleeding, as a post partum sitz bath to heal and tone injured vaginal and cervical tissue, and as a douche when the vaginal pH has become to alkaline as well.

When I first learned of Bearberry, I was so touched by its ethnobotanical uses that I created a username after it - Bearberry Smoke. That's because native people have used the leaf ceremonially and during council meetings as a smoking herb. According to what I read back in 2008 from a book I don't remember, it is the plant of brotherhood - promoting a shared feeling of mutual intent and respect. Michael Moores says that it is a common smoking herb, used with tobacco, other herbs, or on its own. 

A few months ago I got to eat a bunch of the sweet flowers, and just yesterday I finally got to experience the tasty little berry, which can be made into jelly or drink. The berries are dry and full of seeds, but the flavor is sweet and sort of apple-like. I crunched on the seeds and swallowed them, which was fun for me. I felt like I got all the nutrition it had to offer. Its name Bearberry comes from the fact that bears really love Manzanita and Uva-Ursi berry season. If Bear is your medicine guide, or if you've seen Bear show up in dreams or in your yard lately, Manzanita may have some messages for you as well!

Manzanita Flowers

There are a few different ways to use this plant, but the leaf is going to provide the medicine. Dry it for future use, but also because it gets the conversion process going - where the arbutin breaks down into hydroquinone - which is the antibacterial phytochemical we're looking for when treating infections. Charles Kane says that drying the leaf and then dehydrating it in a small amount of water before its final preparation increases the availability of hydroquinone. 

The dried leaf is used to make a tea, about 2 T per quart. Drink 3-4 cups per day for a few days up to two weeks, depending on the condition being treated. I’ve seen other authors recommend lower or higher ratios of herb to water, but this is what I use to get a medicinal strength infusion without too much astringency. Use a stronger infusion for vaginal douche or sitz bath, about 4 T per quart. Being so astringent, the tea can cause stomach or intestinal irritation, so when taken internally I and the mentioned authors all agree that combining it with mucilaginous herbs can reduce the chances of this irritation. Cornsilk, the mallows, plantain, okra, and hollyhock are some suggestions in this regard, with comfrey being a useful addition to external applications.

Kane and Moore both provide a tincture strength using the dried leaf as well, a 1:5 50% ratio, typical dose of 30-60 drops 3-4 x/ day. 

Alter your strengths, doses, and delivery according to your client's needs, of course.

This is an invaluable herb for your herbal apothecary, and will be especially potent if it’s growing near its patient. We should have some for sale soon, so sign up for the Medicinal Muse to stay in the loop!

Tangles

References:

Peter Bigfoot, Useful Wild Western Plants, Page 74

Charles Kane, Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest, Pages 127-128

Michael Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, Page 156

**DISCLAIMER: Any information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and not intended to replace professional health advice. Need a professional herbalist? Contact us!**

Globe Mallow for Determined Patience

Globe Mallow

Sphaeralcea spp.

Harvest: 4.11.19

Seed, tea, flower essence

Globe Mallow teaches lessons in patience, trust, and determination. (Survival, self assuredness, self confidence, self esteem, trust, unfolding, perseverance)

This year I’ve been on the hunt for Sphaeralcea incana, even though it is quite a common desert wildflower. I have long loved this beautiful glowing flower. So when return from Tucson I drove past miles of desert floor ablaze in its ethereal orange blossoms, I knew I needed to connect it with it deeply, and soon.

This led to a series of weekly attempts at finding a grand stand of Globe Mallow, abundant enough to gather, prepare, and share. Revisiting old sites where I'd found it before proved fruitless, as the community I'd previously seen seemed to have packed up and moved to someplace more suitable.

I drove many miles as if on a quest, and eventually the insecurities arose as I sensed the plant's spirit evading my own - maybe I wasn’t supposed to harvest the herb this year, or maybe my understanding and memories of its qualities were incorrect. I had to surrender to the experience of not finding what I was looking for, and maintain the fire of determination at the same time. Glad I did! One of my girl crew was able to point me to a good grove of globes, and then the real magick started to happen.

One week before I sat down to write this, I quit the job to pursue my actual purpose, undeniable and indescribable as it is. Part of that is connecting people to nature and to each other, and to begin to understand the relationships between plants, people, and place, a little (a lot!) more. In order to do this I aspire to spend a lot of time in Nature as an observer and co-creator. In reality, I’m pursuing Nature as a lover in a longterm healthy relationship (and hoping she’s ok with with a non-monogamous affair).

So the day after I quit my job, I rode out to the ‘for-sure’ spot described by my friend. It was early-ish, the desert was still quiet but coming to life, and there was only one other person nearby. I hiked into the desert a little bit and found the stand she was talking about. Except! There were no flowers.

I peeked around a bit more and discovered that while there were no flowers, there were tons of seeds. Literal tons. It became clear that perhaps part of my purpose in seeking out Globe Mallow was not to blend a tea, but to provide seeds from wild plants so that others could experience its healing in their own back yard, just through being with it one on one. A giant orange lightbulb went off and I felt so aligned with everything that I set happily out to gathering seeds with gratitude in my heart and respect in my hands(it would have been too early for the seeds on my previous forays, keep in mind).

A few minutes into this I wandered farther up the hillside and down through a ravine, finding a blossoming Sore Eye Mallow (one of its other names) with enough blooms that I felt good about harvesting a few to make a flower essence (link to flower essence here). The blossoms were bigger, the stalks taller, and the leaves greener than I'd remembered.

Flower Essence medicine is pretty special for a lot of reasons, but one of the most important ways from an ecological perspective is that you only need to use a few blooms to make an ounce of mother essence (link to mother essence here). Flower Essences are vibrational medicine, which means they work to align your own energy/aura/spirit/mind/all of it with the energies of the plant. It raises your own vibrations to meet the plants’, and therefore heals you on the level of your psycho-spiritual self, rather than only on the level of your tangible self. Although the effects are tangible and palpable, and the healing spills over like sunlight onto all the parts of you in need of healing and balance.

I cut about 4 flowers from different stalks, and let them do their thing in their morning sunlight water bath. I sat to think about the meaning of of it, and as I meditated on all the changes I’d just made to my life, my pursuit of Globe Mallow, the sheer bliss of the moment I was experiencing right then, a flood of ideas entered into me. New ways of thinking about herbalism and my professional life, recipes, rituals, classes to write, work to do. It was a moment of divine union as inspiration poured right down into my crown and filled up my heart. I had a deep sense of knowing tuned-inness that I rarely experience indoors.

Sitting there in such quiet stillness, I saw a ton of wildlife. Lizards felt comfortable coming out of hiding, a giant black beetle with red wings walked by on long legs that elevated its body an inch off the ground. There were butterflies. I sat directly across of a giant Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata), and began to have ideas for how this, my most trusted and well known ally, could provide healing in ritual and ceremonial ways I hadn’t tried before. As thoughts of our relationship floated through my mind, a hummingbird came to the tree and sat on the highest branch. It was so close I could see its tiny body and long bill, I could see where its colors began and ended and blended. And this was an incredible confirmation for me, sealing in what I knew to be true.

I stood up to have a good look around, and so discovered that there were more Globe Mallow Flowers. As it turns out, they opened up as the sun got warmer. I had wondered if that could be the case, and everything worked out perfectly to where I was still in the same meadow when they began to open. Something, some deep inner knowing, had kept me there to witness the grand opening in a way I’d never before.

Getting to see the flowers open all around me and being in their midst was more amazing than actually getting to harvest. The message was clear: Experiencing is more important than the experience.

Sitting there with an open heart and notebook, Globe Mallow medicine came to me.

This is medicine to support gradual unfolding. We must place unshakable trust in the process of our own opening. The journeys each of us take, the paths we are on in pursuit of goals and success (whatever that means is individual and of the time) come before the achievement, and so we must keep our minds in the moment, without frustration. There is a greater plan than the ones we devise, but they do indeed merge - and this is Alignment.

This medicine supports you in the risks you take, to grow brightly, colorfully, into you as you are meant to be. It helps you to support yourself by recognizing your own robustness and strength. It encourages you in your remembrance of self love, self care, rest, healing , and calmness and the memory that it is ok to slow down. You don’t have to know EVERYTHING Right Now. When you stop moving, everything reveals itself to you.

Here’s the thing. If I had found a bunch of globe mallow the first time I went looking for it, I wouldn’t have kept looking. If I’d found it before I quit my job I might not have made it my first priority after to quitting to go to the desert and harvest. If I’d found it in another location it would have been too early for seeds. I’d never have experienced Globe Mallow’s vulnerable expansion to receive the Sun exactly when it was supposed to. If I still worked in the office, I wouldn’t even have been there, right then. I’d have missed the other messages and the hummingbird, the spotted lizards and giant beetles. I’d have passed over my own process of unfoldment. I’d have missed my own personalized, universal memo!

Hindsight is not always 20/20 but it’s usually a hell of a lot easier to see the past than the future and for many of us, even the present. If you are struggling with feeling like you aren’t where you’re supposed to be, or if you’re facing a big decision that is scary or difficult to make, but you feel it pulling you from deep down in your core, Globe Mallow medicine will be your ally in progress and process. It will help you notice the subtleties and nuance of your life that actually play a bigger role than you expected on your journey. Gently it nudges your mental acceptance of where you are, it reveals that you can open yourself to new ideas and changes that need to be made in order to proceed. Globe Mallow holds your hand as you learn to trust Divine timing, and holds the candle as you illuminate the intersection of your plan with a greater one.

Aligns 3rd and 4th chakras, balancing will, determination, ambition, and outward expression with vulnerability, compassion (for oneself and others), receptivity, healing, trust, and soul knowing.

**Rebel Herbal recommends that you try any new flower essence for a full lunar cycle (28 days)**

**DISCLAIMER: Any information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and not intended to replace professional health advice. Need a professional herbalist? Contact us!**