Photo: Judy Biss

Some of you might remember the 1992 movie, Medicine Man, starring Sean Connery, where he conducts research into a “cure for cancer” derived from native flowers.  The science of medicines derived from plants and other natural sources is not just the stuff of Hollywood movie studios, though.  Numerous medical treatments have been known for hundreds of years and have been used by indigenous peoples to treat everything from hives to headaches and much more.

Many common wetland plants have known medicinal properties.  Here are just a few of the many species you may encounter and what they could do for you in a pinch.  Some are so helpful that companies have produced commercial products based on the active ingredients found in these plants.

While the following plants are all relatively safe, it needs to be pointed out that this list is provided for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as safe for all, and that you should consult your doctor before attempting any of these remedies on your own.

Black Willow – Salix Nigra L. EMP – OBL

https://greatplainsnursery.com

Willow bark extract is very similar in its analgesic action to quinine; the active ingredient is salicin which forms salicylic acid which is found in a number of herbal remedies used throughout the world, some dating as far back as the Stone Age. The willow first became known to Native Americans, who were in need of a fever-reducing agent and used willow bark tea as a remedy. The bark is anodyne, anti-inflammatory, antiperiodic, antiseptic, astringent, diaphoretic, diuretic, febrifuge, hypnotic, sedative, tonic. It has been used in the treatment of gonorrhea, ovarian pains and nocturnal emissions. It is taken internally in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis, gout, inflammatory stages of auto-immune diseases, diarrhea, dysentery, feverish illnesses, neuralgia and headache. The bark can be used as a poultice on cuts, wounds, sprains, bruises, swellings etc.

Stinging Nettle – Urtica Dioica L.  EMP – FACU

t3.gstatic.com

Urtica dioica, often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is an herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae.

Nettles are a highly revered, nutritious spring green, eaten steamed or in soups and stir-fries. The sting disappears when the leaves are cooked or dried. The greens and tea of nettles are high in minerals, vitamins, and chlorophyll, namely Vitamin A and C and calcium, potassium, magnesium, and iron.  The leaves and seeds are used medicinally in teas and foods for allergies, arthritis, and as a kidney tonic. Russians are using the leaves in alcohol for cholecystitis (inflammation or the gall bladder) and hepatitis.

Spotted Joe-Pye Weed – Eutrochium maculatum L. EMP – FACW

W.D. Bransford @ Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Native Americans used the tea made from the whole plant of as a diuretic for dropsy, painful urination, gout, kidney infections, and rheumatism. The root tea was once used for fevers, colds, chills, sore womb after childbirth, diarrhea, liver and kidney ailments, and a wash for rheumatism. Its name was derived from “Joe Pye”, a 19th century Caucasian who used the root to induce sweating in typhus fever.

Common St. John’s Wort – Hypericum perforatum L. EMP – FAC

Jim Stasz @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS

Fresh flowers used in tea, tincture, or olive oil, was once a popular domestic medicine for treatment of external ulcers, wounds (especially those with severed nerve tissue), sores, cuts, bruises, etc. The tea is a folk remedy for bladder ailments, depression, dysentery, diarrhea, and worms. Contains the biologically active compounds choline, pectin, rutin, sitosterol, hypericin, and pseudohypericin. Recent studies (1988) have found that hypericin and pseudohypericin have potent anti-retroviral activity, without serious side effects. They are also being researched as an AIDS treatment.

Warning: Taken internally or externally, hypericin may cause photodermatitis (skin burns) on sensitive persons exposed to light.

Yellow marsh marigold – Caltha palustris L. EMP – OBL

www.wildflower.org

Marsh marigold roots were used by Native Americans to treat colds and sores, to induce vomiting, to protect against love charms, and as an aid in childbirth. A tea made from its leaves was also believed to relieve constipation.

Ojibwas mixed tea with maple sugar to make a cough syrup that was popular with colonists; this syrup was used as a folk antidote to snake venom. The plant contains anemonin and protoanemonin – both have marginal antitumor activity.

Warning: Sniffing bruised stems induced sneezing. Intoxication has resulted from the use of the raw leaves in salads or using the raw flower buds as substitutes for capers. Do not confuse with American White or False Hellebore, which is toxic. While parts of the plant are used medicinally, handling the plant can cause skin irritation, and uncooked parts are toxic to human consumption. This is due to irritant yellow oil called protoanemonin.

False daisy – Eclipta prostata L. EMP – FAC

False daisy is native to parts of North America where it has been collected in Massachusetts, and recently in Connecticut. False daisy is used in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine against liver disease and to restore hair growth. The leaves contain nicotine which acts as an insecticide. It has been used in herbal medicine worldwide. In some parts of this country, it is considered a weed, and, in some areas, it is considered an endangered species. 

Cardinal Flower – Lobelia cardinalis L.  EMP – FAC

Thomas G. Barnes @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS

Native Americans used the root tea for stomachaches, syphilis, typhoid, worms, and an ingredient of “love potions”. Leaf tea was used for colds, croup, nosebleeds, fevers, headaches, and rheumatism. This plant was considered a substitute for Indian-tobacco, Lobelia inflata L., but with weaker effects; it was rarely used.

Warning: Potentially toxic; degree of toxicity unknown.

Purple Loosestrife – Lythrum salicaria L. EMP – FACW

Tea made from whole flowering plant (fresh or dried) is a European folk remedy for diarrhea, intestinal problems, and dysentery; gargle for sore throats; douche for leucorrhea, and as a cleansing wash for wounds and treatment of bacterial infections.

They also use it for swelling and as a drying agent. Women use it for menstrual problems.

Jewelweed – Impatiens capensis   EMP – FACW

Thomas G. Barnes @ USDA-NRCS  PLANT

Jewelweed has a long history of use in Native American medicine. When applied topically, sap from the stem and leaves is said to relieve itching and pain from a variety of ailments, including hives, poison ivy, stinging nettle, and other skin sores and irritations. The sap has also been shown to have anti-fungal properties and can be used to treat athlete’s foot. Thomas G. Barnes @ USDA-NRCS  PLANT

Crushed leaves or mucilaginous stem juice that is harvested before flowering can be applied on recent poison-ivy rash. A 1957 study found it effective, in 2-3 days, in treating 108 of 115 patients. Some people swear by the leaf tea as a poison-ivy rash preventative; others rub on the frozen tea, in the form of ice cubes, as a remedy. The poultice is also a folk remedy for bruises, burns, cuts, eczema, insect bites, sores, sprains, warts, and ringworm.  

Jack in the Pulpit – Arisaema triphyllum L.  EMP – FAC

Jeff McMillian @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

Native Americans used the dried, aged root for colds and dry coughs, and to build blood. Externally, the root was poulticed for rheumatism, scrofulous sores, boils, abscesses, and ringworm. Dried root tea was used as an expectorant, diaphoretic, and purgative, and for asthma, bronchitis, colds, cough, laryngitis, and headaches. Externally, for rheumatism, boils, and swelling from snakebites. The Chinese used related species to treat snakebites.

Warning: Intensely irritating. Calcium oxalate crystals found in whole fresh herb.

Herb of grace/Water Hyssop – Bacopa monnieri L. EMP – OBL

© Shirley Denton

Hyssop has astringent, emmenagogue (stimulating menstrual flow), relaxant, diuretic, and wound-healing properties. It stimulates mucus production, and is helpful in soothing sore throats, and coughs. It has also been known to help against asthma. Because it also relaxes muscle, it is helpful in aiding digestive problems. Its antibacterial properties make hyssop a good vermifuge (expels intestinal parasites). Hyssop essential oil has medicinal properties, but has also been linked to epileptic seizures, and should be taken with precaution.

Boneset – Eupatorium perfoliatum EMP – FACW

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Boneset leaf tea was once used to induce sweating in fevers, flu, and colds; also used for malaria, rheumatism, muscular pains, spasms, pneumonia, pleurisy, gout, etc. Leaves were poulticed onto tumors. West German research suggests nonspecific immune system-stimulating properties, perhaps vindicating historical use in flu epidemics.

Warning: Emetic and laxative in large doses. May contain controversial and potentially liver-harming pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

References:

http://edibleandmedicinalplants.weebly.com­­­­­­

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC9385301

https://sites.google.com › ccam › useful-plants-in-vi-habitats

https://www.botanicgardens.org/blog/top-10-medicinal-plants

North Carolina has been in a drought for a few months, and it is starting to show in the state’s waterways. At Jordan Lake, local residents and out-of-towners are enjoying a rare glimpse into the history buried beneath the water’s surface. Before the lake was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers, it was a large valley, and humans lived there beginning around 10,000 years ago. In 1982, the Corps began filling it up, and the project was completed in 1983. What many people do not realize is that, prior to the start of excavation work in 1970, there were whole towns in New Hope Valley, as it was once called, full of homes, churches, and farmsteads. While the region had very rich soil that created great farming conditions, the New Hope Valley was prone to flooding, and, after the area was decimated by a hurricane in 1945, the federal government decided to turn it into a reservoir.

Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

From 1963-1970, the communities in New Hope Valley were abandoned, as the government bought the land and locals were forced to leave their homes, farms, and even graveyards behind. Seaforth, Pea Ridge, and Farrington are just a few of the small towns that were wiped off of the map, but in November of this year these ghost towns began to emerge. Historians flocked to the site, along with the descendants of the people who used to live there, to catch a glimpse of and document the decaying structures and artifacts. The history and physical location of those communities has yet to be studied in an archaeological context. Before the reservoir was filled, archaeological excavations were performed to record the history and salvage any artifacts deemed historically significant. But those excavations, which started in 1978 and ended a year later, were less concerned with the modern villages and were more concerned with the prehistoric context.

Photo Courtesy of WRAL News

Today, descendants of the farmers and landowners forced to leave New Hope Valley are interested in documenting what they can of their more recent past. If this drought continues, there could be the potential for cultural resource management (CRM) work at Jordan Lake. The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, and their private CRM partners, may be able to map out the location of structures, roadways, and even cemeteries. Contacting the descendant communities to get their oral histories and any written or photographic evidence of how the towns used to look can help piece together what has been lost. Our heritage and culture are wrapped up in our homes, wrapped up in where we are from; at Jordan Lake, some forgotten communities are emerging, if only for a short time. We should not let this fleeting treasure trove of history go to waste.

Photo Courtesy of WRAL News

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Coastal wetlands provide invaluable ecological and economic services for our coastal communities. To keep pace with sea level rise, these habitats need space to migrate upland. This may present a challenge in some highly urbanized areas. A recent study that calculated open and developed land near wetlands along the Southeastern coast of the United States sheds light on the fate of coastal wetlands at a regional scale, and provides context for improved coastal resilience efforts.

By Mary Schoell • February 12, 2019

Borchert, Sinéad M., et al. “Coastal Wetland Adaptation to Sea Level Rise: Quantifying Potential for Landward Migration and Coastal Squeeze.” Journal of Applied Ecology 1, no. 12 (2018): DOI:10.1111/1365-2664.13169

Approximately 39% of the U.S. population lives in coastal counties, which means that coastal wetlands and nearby communities intimately coexist. A coastal wetland can be defined as an ecosystem that undergoes tidal fluctuations, and includes habitats such as salt marshes, mangrove forests, and salt flats. These habitats provide a wide range of ecosystem services, or benefits to humans, such as flood protection from storm surges, land erosion control, improved water quality, and biodiversity of fish and shellfish species.

However, both development along the coast and anthropogenic climate change have made coastal wetlands particularly vulnerable. Under normal conditions, wetlands can naturally keep pace with changing sea levels. In a process called accretion, plants trap sediment, which increases the elevation of the wetland’s surface. However, due to climate change, higher rates of sea level rise are projected to “drown” many coastal wetland ecosystems. This means that sea levels could rise faster than a wetland’s natural accretion rate. For this reason, the retreat of these habitats upland into higher elevations is recognized as a way for tidal saline wetlands to survive in response to sea level rise. Available, undeveloped land in higher elevations is needed for migration to occur. This can prove difficult in urbanized areas along the coast.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, researchers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) quantified areas along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. where wetland retreat could and could not occur due to development. Using land elevation and tidal data, they determined current coastal wetland boundaries and then calculated the amount of upland area that would potentially become wetlands by the year 2100 under three different future sea level rise scenarios (specifically, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 meters). They completed this assessment for 39 different estuaries, from Texas to southwestern Florida.

To assess differences in land use, researcher Sinéad Borchert and her team first used the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wetlands Inventory data to identify coastal wetland habitat. Next, they classified areas of urban development within the projected wetland migration zones using two different datasets: an urban growth model called SLEUTH (Slope, Land use, Excluded, Urban, Transportation, and Hillshade) and the USGS’s National Land Cover Database. Using both habitat and elevation data provides a more accurate prediction of flooding zones at a regional level. Modeling such a comprehensive dataset has rarely been done in the past.

This study reinforces the idea that topography and coastal development dictate the fate of coastal wetland habitat. The results show that low-sloping coastal areas of Louisiana and southern Florida have the highest potential for landward wetland migration. However, wetlands will have to retreat over a larger area to reach higher elevations in these locations.

Urban development in these low-sloping, low-lying areas, such as in Miami, poses the greatest threat to coastal wetlands when sea levels rise. Instead of encouraging wetland growth, we can instead expect areas of high urbanization areas to promote increasing infrastructure development like concrete walls to combat sea level rise. This will result in shoreline “hardening”, or a greater disconnect between coastal wetlands and their upland environment, and ultimately wetland loss.

With the threat of rising sea levels, the need for communication between ecologists, economists, and town planners in coastal communities is more important than ever. This study offers a finer look at areas in the southeastern U.S. that can provide adequate space for coastal wetlands to keep up with sea level rise. It also highlights areas where development will stand in the way of wetland migration – or in other words, potential areas of future wetland loss. Identifying these regions can better direct conservation efforts to places of high priority.

Developing along the coast comes at a great cost in the long term. Losing coastal wetlands means losing ecosystems that protect us from storms, clean our water, and provide habitat for marine species that fishing industries heavily rely on. The results from this study can facilitate more informed and detailed management plans that promote the preservation of coastal wetland migration areas, and ultimately the invaluable ecosystem services that wetlands provide for coastal communities.

In 2011, Batson-Cook, assisted by Scott Bridge Co., was chosen to build the world’s longest urban whitewater course in Columbus, Ga., through the Chattahoochee River Restoration project. The project both enhanced the river’s local environment and created a state-of-the-art whitewater facility.

The Columbus, Ga., project won the top award in the water and environmental project category.

Contractors hired divers to survey the river and help determine its “true” channel, which helped builders determine where underwater structures, such as boulders, should be placed in order to achieve the designer’s intent for both the river’s natural bank restoration as well as the whitewater course. The project team’s biggest challenge was removing two dams that were more than 100 years old—the Eagle & Phenix Dam and the City Mills Dam—that were built in the late 1800s to provide power to the now-abandoned textile mills located along the river. To take out the structures, crews drilled holes down through the top of the dams and placed dynamite topped with crushed gravel and then more dynamite. Once blasted, the team used heavy equipment to manually dismantle the rest of the structure. Also, the project team recontoured the river bed to create whitewater courses; changed the contour of the river’s flow for the whitewater rapids; and constructed a habitat pool for fish and wildlife.

The breaching of the 130-year-old Eagle and Phenix Dam, removal of the City Mills Dam, and formation of natural habitat pools, construction of a boat launch, viewing terrace, and pedestrian bridge unleashed the potential of the river and community, dramatically improving the local downtown experience, providing new economic opportunities, attracting new residents and businesses, and boosting tourism. Dozens of new in-river features provide over two miles of world class whitewater kayaking and rafting. Numerous bank improvements allow for better tourist access and observation areas. In addition, the project created habitat for the endangered Shoal Spider Lilly and native Shoal Bass, an important game fish only found in the southeastern U.S.

The Chattahoochie River Conservancy played a large part in reclaiming this magnificent river.

“The dams built along the Chattahoochee River have done immense damage to the ecosystem. By removing the dams no longer serving a purpose to the community, we are able to restore sections of the river to a state that closely resembles pre-dam habitat. These restored sections may be small (3-10 miles) but are immensely valuable in the fight to restore the Chattahoochee River. In impounded areas where dam removal is not an option, we partner with the Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Power, and the US Army Corps of Engineers to improve the habitat within the reservoirs and reduce the impacts of invasive species.“

https://www.chattahoocheeriverconservancy.org/our-work.html

All told, the Chattahoochee River Restoration project helped restore this once highly-disturbed river back to its natural and unrestricted flow and transformed it into a thing of beauty for the community that will also be attracting numerous visitors and recreationists.

References

https://www.batson-cook.com/portfolio/chattahoochee-river-restoration

https://www.enr.com/articles/12209-chattahoochee river-restoration-churns-up-whitewater-attraction

https://mcglaughlinwhitewater.com/projects/chattahoochee-river-restoration