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. . .