It is the host plant for the Clouded Sulphur butterfly. ![]() New plants should be kept moist their first year.Īn olive-green dye can be extracted from the flowers and stems. Propagate from seed or by dividing in spring or fall. Wash the leaves to remove the bitter-tasting tannin (yellowish-brown bitter-tasting organic substance) prior to eating. They are used in stews, soups, and salads. It can be grown in full sun but may need some shade in hot dry conditions. This very adaptive plant can be grown under most soil, light and PH conditions. Its native habit includes moist fields, roadsides, pastures, and along woodlands. Prunella vulgaris is a perennial wildflower that can be recognized by its erect, flowering spikes and hairy bracts. Please feel free to leave a comment below to share your thoughts.Phonetic Spelling proo-NELL-uh vul-GAIR-iss Description Have you ever worked with self heal or found it growing in your lawn? I would love to hear about your experience with it. To use your salve, massage it into the skin when you are dealing with skin irritation, inflammation, or minor wounds. Once set, you can add labels to your containers and store the salve in a cool, dry place. Pour the salve into sanitized tins or jars and leave them alone until they have set up into a solid. Continue to stir until well combined, then add your calendula CO2 extract and your essential oils. After it looks like a liquid instead of a solid, turn off the heat and slowly stir in your self heal-infused oil. Once your infused oil is ready, prepare a double boiler and begin to melt your beeswax over low heat. (Learn all about how to make herb-infused oils here.) I prefer to double or triple infuse my herbal oils when I make them because the end result is much stronger and more effective than a single-infused oil or salve. It is lightweight and does not leave my skin feeling greasy the way some of the heavier oils do. I have listed sunflower seed oil as the carrier oil ingredient here because I like the way it feels on my skin. You wouldd be surprised how often we use it throughout the year!Ħ ounces of sunflower seed oil double- or triple-infused with self heal leaves and flowers ( learn how to infuse herbs into oil here)ġ ounce of beeswax (use 1.5 to 2 ounces if you want a harder salve - this article has more info about salve consistency)Ģ4 drops of Helichrysum italicum essential oilĤ2 drops of Lavandula angustifolia essential oilĪfter you have harvested and dried your self heal, you can infuse it into your carrier oil of choice. I like to keep a plain self heal salve in my herbal first aid kit. John's wort, you can also make a self heal salve like the one in the recipe below. If you don't have access to mullein flowers, daisies, or St. Self heal also combines well with cultivated calendula, chamomile, lavender and rose in topical use products for the skin. They combine very well together in topical applications. Because of this, I like to make a seasonal skin-healing salve with these four flowers in the summertime. When I find self heal growing wild, I often find it growing with other skin-friendly herbs like oxeye and shasta daisies, mullein, and St. It can also be used the same way we use plantain ( Plantago spp.) as a poultice to help draw splinters out of the skin. Self heal is a valuable vulnerary herb, which means that it can help to soothe and restore the skin when it is irritated, inflamed, or compromised. As the season progresses, each harvest grows larger because the pinching causes the plant to make two new flower heads in the place of each flower head I harvest. During its peak season, I can harvest at least once a week if I keep pinching back new center stems. Self heal leaves and flower heads can be gathered throughout the summer. If you pinch the center stems, you can encourage the plant to grow lush and bushy the same way you would pinch a basil plant (also a mint relative) to encourage more growth. You will rarely find self heal growing alone as a single plant. Because it is a mint family plant, you will usually find it in patches as it spreads happily about. If you find it growing in a place where the grass is kept short or in a wild area where you do not get much summer rain, this pretty little plant will be just a few inches tall, but if growing in good soil and allowed to grow as it pleases, it can grow to about 18-24" tall. It likes to grow at the base of mature conifer trees there. You may be able to find self heal growing in your lawn, in the grass at an unsprayed park, or along the ground near the forest's edge. ![]() ![]() It is related to many of our favorite aromatic plants, including peppermint, lavender, and culinary herbs like oregano and thyme, but unlike these other plants, it has no notable scent. Self heal, sometimes called all-heal or heal-all, is a Lamiaceae family plant.
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