Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 120 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness

Can plants heal our bodies? Searching for answers to this basic question, Scott Kloos provides a revealing excursion in “Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 120 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness”, published by Timber Press in 2017. This comprehensive field guide and reference work covers Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.

Kloos shares what he has learned from more than two decades of wildcrafting and working with plant medicine. He runs his own school as well as a folk medicine business. In helping people understand traditional uses of medicinal plants, he acknowledges some level of uncertainty and risk involved. Self-treatment is strongly not recommended; consulting a qualified practitioner is advised.

In the book, Kloos first describes basic botanical concepts, tools for harvesting, formulas for making medicine, ethical and sustainable wildcrafting practices, herbal safety, and a breakdown of the harvesting season. Photographs taken by Kloos accompany the plants he profiles. He provides detailed descriptions of each plant: their growth habits, parts of the plant, identifying characteristics, where one is likely to find the plant, the best time of year to harvest, and how to harvest the plant. Medicinal uses of the plant and methods of preparing each part of the plant as medicine are described. Cautionary notes throughout the book alert readers regarding such matters as toxicity, dosage precautions, and uses with other medications or during pregnancy. It is imperative to consider potentially harmful effects of an herb.

For thousands of years, plants have been the chief source of medicine around the world. Healers have prescribed many cures from the flora around them. Nevertheless, there is a lot we don’t know. It is important to let your doctor and other health practitioners know which herbal remedies you are considering taking. Meanwhile, reading this book can help you cultivate a more healthy respect for the wild, bonding with the living world in all it offers us.

Excerpted from the August 2019 Leaflet Volume 6, Issue 8.