There’s been some interest in more audio options for the newsletter so I thought I would start a little podcast section! Most will be available to paid subscribers only, but I will throw some free ones in here and there too. Plus, you can listen to this podcast on any of your favorite podcast apps. I will still be writing the free newsletter regularly as well so that isn’t going anywhere.
In this very first episode, I want to introduce you to the officinalis plants. These are plants which have the species name of officinalis in their Latin names (think of sage i.e. Slavia officinalis or rosemary i.e. Rosmarinus officinalis). It wasn’t until recently that I discovered the stories that tie all of these officinalis plants together and so I decided to share my thoughts on them with you.
For me, the greatest gifts plants give us are stories. These stories tell us about their medicine, their history, culture, as well as who we are and where we come from. I’m not one for memorizing scientific vocab. I’d rather learn through folktales and anecdotes. This is what this podcast and newsletter are really all about. I hope you’ll enjoy this new channel for connection.
In the podcast episodes to come we’ll be going into each officinalis plant individually and learn about their particular story. From these stories we’ll discover how we can more deeply weave each plant into our own herbalism practice.
References
Mądra-Gackowska, Katarzyna & Gackowski, Marcin & Główczewska-Siedlecka, Emilia & Siedlecki, Zygmunt & Ziółkowska, Sylwia. (2018). Medications of medieval monastery medicine. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2391-8306. 10.5281/zenodo.1438770.
Pearn J. On "officinalis" the names of plants as one enduring history of therapeutic medicine. Vesalius. 2010 Dec;Suppl:24-8. PMID: 21657104.
Stearn, William T. (2004). Botanical Latin. Timber Press (OR). p. 456. ISBN0-88192-627-2.
Cover image: Collecting plants in a monastic garden, from ‘Kreuterbuch, von natürlichem Nutz, und gründtlichem Gebrauch der Kreutter’, 1550.
The greatest gift plants offer us