Starkrusher
Kinnikinnick
Native groups smoked Kinnikinnick (also called bearberry) and the berries are still used medicinally to treat bladder and kidney disorders. Truly, the leaves of Bearberry plant still fill many a pipe today.
Gardeners love Kinnikinnick for landscaping steep banks, rockeries and open spaces in urban settings where it anchors the soil by rooting at intervals along the prostrate stems.
The name "bearberry" for the plant derives from the edible fruit which is a favorite food of bears. The fruit, also called bearberries, are edible and are sometimes gathered for food. The leaves of the plant are used in herbal medicine.
Just one of the many northwest native plants listed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, this one collected at Fort Mandan, McLean County in North Dakota. Captain Lewis noted on this specimen: "No. 33 An evergreen plant which grows in the open plains usually. The natives smoke it's leaves, mixed with tobacco. Called by the French Engages Sacacommis.-[specimen] obtained at Fort Mandan".
I took this photo to show how nature reclaims the detritus which falls to the forest floor.
Kinnikinnick
Native groups smoked Kinnikinnick (also called bearberry) and the berries are still used medicinally to treat bladder and kidney disorders. Truly, the leaves of Bearberry plant still fill many a pipe today.
Gardeners love Kinnikinnick for landscaping steep banks, rockeries and open spaces in urban settings where it anchors the soil by rooting at intervals along the prostrate stems.
The name "bearberry" for the plant derives from the edible fruit which is a favorite food of bears. The fruit, also called bearberries, are edible and are sometimes gathered for food. The leaves of the plant are used in herbal medicine.
Just one of the many northwest native plants listed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, this one collected at Fort Mandan, McLean County in North Dakota. Captain Lewis noted on this specimen: "No. 33 An evergreen plant which grows in the open plains usually. The natives smoke it's leaves, mixed with tobacco. Called by the French Engages Sacacommis.-[specimen] obtained at Fort Mandan".
I took this photo to show how nature reclaims the detritus which falls to the forest floor.