North American herb books.

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 14:46:21 MDT
Sender: Medicinal and Aromatic Plants discussion list <HERB.TREARN.BITNET>
From: Michael Moore <hrbmoore.RT66.COM>
Subject: Native Herb Reference Booklist

>Has anyone run accross a reference book dealing primarily with herbs native to North America?

Here's a list of some of the North American wildcrafting-oriented books that I know of...admittedly deficient regarding east-coast books:

Balls, Edward K. EARLY USES OF CALIFORNIA PLANTS. Berkeley, CA. University of California Press. 1962 An odd book, at least in terms of ethnobotany. It makes the assumption that someone might actually USE the stuff (Heresy!)

Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte USES OF PLANTS FOR THE PAST 500 YEARS. Aurora, Ontario. Breezy Creeks Press, 1979 It's an admirable catalogueing of cross-cultural reference culled from Canadian journals, ethnobotanical texts., correspondence...everything on record and seemingly sensible. I saw where it has been reprinted by a large non-regional publisher, but I don't know who...she and I traded books years ago and I still only have the name of the original publisher.

Foster, Steven, and James A. Duke. A FIELD GUIDE TO MEDICINAL PLANTS. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. A great book, great pictures, but conservative and overly careful ... probably because it is one of the Peterson guides.

Kindscher, Kelly EDIBLE PLANTS OF THE PRAIRIE Lawrence, Kansas. University Press of Kansas. 1987

Kindscher, Kelly MEDICINAL WILD PLANTS OF THE PRAIRIE. Lawrence, Kansas. University Press of Kansas. 1992 Two excellent books, with good pictures AND distribution maps, dealing with our most endangered North American biosphere. Sensible, experiential, and begging to be taken out in the field

Millspaugh, Charles AMERICAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 1892. Reprint. New York. Dover Publications, 1974. A classic text by a professional amateur, dealing with the eastern third of the U.S.; it offers great plant descriptions, half-tone pictures of the original marvelous lithographs, and Millspaugh's admirable attempt to supply useful proving information to both Boerecke-style homeopaths and Eclectics and other docs that used herbs.

Moore, Michael MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE MOUNTAIN WEST. Santa Fe, NM. Museum of New Mexico Press, 1979

Moore, Michael MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE DESERT AND MOUNT WEST. Santa Fe, NM. Museum of New Mexico Press, 1989

Moore, Michael LOS REMEDIOS: Traditional Herbal Remdies of the Southwest. Santa Fe, NM Red Crane Books, 1990

Moore, Michael MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE PACIFIC WEST. Santa Fe, NM Red Crane Books, 1993 (what can I say)

Schofield, Janice J. DISCOVERING WILD PLANTS. Bothell, Wash; Alaska Northwest Books, 1989 A MARVELOUS coffee-table-style book, full of photographs, hints, recipes, sensible therapeutic guidelines, aimed at the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Western Canada.

Tillford, Gregory L. THE ECOHERBALISTS FIELDBOOK. Conner, MT. Moutain Weed Publishing Co. 1993. A book with a heavy eye on the ecologic implications of wildcrafting your own medicinal plants, and with the persumption that all you need is a few good herbs that Green Mama can spare.

Willard, Terry. EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND NEIGHBORING TERRITORIES. Calgary, Alberta: Wild Rose College of Natural Healing, 1993. Dr. Terry's new field guide, with good color photographs and many tips on drying, gathering, food-uses and therapeutics...even some discussion of Native American ritual uses, completely free of the taint of the Wanna-Be. A book for the North Country.

You will notice that these books are almost all RECENT! The early symptoms of a dicotomization of North American Herbalists into Green Herbalists (yay for my team), problem-oriented "Little Drug" clinical herbalists, neo-Thompsonian Nature-Cure Herbalists (an enema a day keeps the allopath away) and Euro-style Phytotherapists ("Have you seen the new studies using the polyphenol fractions from crude Ginkgolide marc that just came out of Germany?...RAD!...<pant...drool>).

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