Mimosa (Albizia Julibrissin)

The mimosa trees are in full bloom this week! I've never had a chance to work with these trees even though they are quite common in our area, so it has been great fun to see them up close at the barn where I work. The ponies also seem to like them. The other morning it looked rather like we had a paddock full of giraffes, because they have eaten all the easy to reach bits of leaf and flowers but just won't give up on the hopes of another nibble!


As far as appearances go, Albizia julibrissin trees are easy to miss unless they are blooming.  They are small, skinny trees with fern-like leaves that fold up at night or when it rains. They lose their leaves in the fall and usually look a bit skeletal without them. But when an Albizia tree is blooming, it's another matter: they have big, puffball blossoms that usually come in bright, cheery pink and white, and they smell heavenly! The blossoms remind me a little of gardenias, but mostly like peach soda.

This tree originally came from Asia, and was introduced into other parts of the world as an ornamental. In our part of the world (Southeastern US) it has naturalized in many areas, much like that other escaped ornamental, honeysuckle. So pretty, so invasive, so incredibly useful!

Herbally speaking, the blossoms and the bark are considered to be the useful parts of the plant. Traditionally, it was viewed as a sedative with special affinity for emotional disturbances such as anxiety and testiness from bottling up the emotions.The flowers were seen as having a more uplifting action on the emotions, and the bark as having a more grounding effect. Other uses included insomnia, poor memory, and amnesia. Additionally, the bark had another use more related to the physical body: it was considered to be extremely valuable for many types of injuries, including wounds and bone fractures.

I'm hoping I will have some pics of this lovely plant by next week- I keep forgetting to take my camera with me to work. (I know, I know, Bad Plantparazzi!)  In the meantime, here's a link to a really great article on Albizia over at the East West School of Herbology's website:

Albizia: The Tree of Happiness by Michael Tierra L.Ac, O.M.D.

Tulip Tree Bits!

Mother's Day Sunday was rather soggy here. But that didn't stop me from wandering around the garden with my mom as she showed me all of her latest lovelies. I bought her a foam flower a few years ago for a problem shady spot she was trying to coax to life, and between that and all of her hostas and hellebores she has a magnificent little hideaway going now. On the sunny side of things, her butterfly weed, stoke's aster and passionflower are gorgeous, and the gardenias are absolute show stoppers this year.

She knows that I have been wanting some tulip tree branches, but the storms so far haven't brought down any limbs. So, after our garden tour, she provided me with the long handled garden shears and pointed out where the trees in the back yard have some low-hanging branches.

My herbal escapades are generally a source of interest and amusement within our family, and Sunday was no different. My brother appeared in short order, to enquire if I was gnawing on the shrubberies again. He gamely chewed on the twig I handed him, and agreed with me that it smells nice but tastes a little bitter. My dad came outside, in time to observe my brother making faces. He declined my offer of a twig of his own. . .

I chose a branch that was crossing over some of the other branches. I figured if I was going to be a pest and take a branch rather than wait for a windfall, the least I could do was select one that could potentially cause problems later on if left to its own devices.

Then I broke the branch down into manageable pieces and brought it home.

Once home, I stripped the bark from the twigs. The inner bark slides off very easily if you choose the right time of year (spring is good) and then it's just a matter of separating the rough outer bark from the inner.

Green/yellow inner bark and brown outer bark.

The outer bark is basically dead cells that protect the active inner bark (think skin on top of blood vessels in human terms) so I didn't worry too much about stripping it all off. A veggie peeler works really well for this step.

Inner bark after using the vegetable peeler.

 Then I shredded the bark a little finer, and snipped it into shorter pieces with kitchen shears.

Next, the bark bits went into a jar with some vodka. I didn't realize I was almost out of vodka, but I had enough to cover the bark. Looks like just enough. . .

The larger portions of the branch yielded thicker and juicier bark.

 The eclectics used either alcohol or cold water preparations of liriodendron- they believed hot water preparations destroyed the useful constituents of the herb, so vodka should make a nice extract.

Two minutes in the menstruum and already taking on the principles of the herb.

Mmmmm, Tulip Tree bits! Time to go do some more research and take a look at the amount the Eclectics used in any given case. Most modern herbalists use 15-30 drops of an extract up to several times a day for an adult, but it really depends on the person and the herb. . .

Honeysuckle (Lonicera Japonica)

This beautiful flower is from a Honeysuckle vine, lonicera japonica, or Japanese Honeysuckle. Although there are several species of native honeysuckle that grow throughout North America, this is the honeysuckle most people are familiar with. It has a heady aroma and flashy appearance that attract attention.

Although it was innocently introduced in the 1800s as a garden ornamental, this plant has made its way onto the USDA's invasive weed list, maligned for its habit of smothering and wreaking havoc on native plant habitat. Birds love the little blue-black berries that appear on the vines in the fall, and are generally the main carriers of the seeds, spreading them out over large areas.

Surprisingly, this beautiful nuisance has a hidden artistic talent. How about some honeysuckle paper and ink? Patterson Clark, who writes the Washington Post column Urban Jungle,  is a visual artist who searches out invasive plants around DC. He takes the plants back to his studio, where he processes them into paper and ink to use in his artwork. American Craft Magazine wrote an interesting article on what he does, and his website is here at Alienweeds. According to Clark, the leaves of honeysuckle make a greenish black ink, and the inner bark of the stems makes a golden yellow paper. 

But honeysuckle doesn't stop there. It's a useful member of the traditional herbal community as well! According to Traditional Chinese Herbalism, Vol 2, by Michael and Leslie Tierra, the young stems of honeysuckle are useful for supporting joint health in cases of arthritis and rheumatism, while the flowers are used across a broad spectrum of Heat* disorders.

Plus, most herbalists here in the south could easily pick a basketful of the flowers to make their own extract, and do native plants a favor in the process. Honeysuckle could also be used as a substitute for traditional Heat clearing herbs such as goldenseal and echinacea, which both face over-harvesting pressure and should be carefully obtained through companies with sustainable harvest practices when used.  

*Herbalists use the term Heat to describe the human body being out of balance in a way that might be expressed as fever, inflammation, soreness, redness, pain, swelling, or abcesses.