What is the size, colour and shape of the leaves and/or flowers?What to look for to identify the plant?
TRADITIONAL MEDICATION
Below is a list of plants that you may have encountered in your travels that have been traditionally used
medicinally by the Indigenous Peoples of Canada:
American Beech tree American Elderberry Ash tree
Basswood Bedstraw Bindweed
Birch tree Bloodroot Blueberry
Blue Flag Bracken Fern Bulrush
Butterfly Weed Cattail Common Wood Sorrel
Daisy Fleabane Dandelion Dogbane
Green false hellebore Goldenrod Ground pine
Hickory Hog peanut Hop hornbeam
Choose 5 plants from the list above and answer the following questions for each of them:
1) What is the habitat of the plant? (e.g. sandy soil, swampland, riverbanks, etc.)
2) What to look for to identify the plant?
a. What is the size of the plant?
b. What is the size, colour and shape of the leaves and/or flowers?
c. Any defining characteristics that make it immediately identifiable?
3) When does the plant bloom/is in season?
4) What parts of the plant are used medicinally?
5) What ailments was the plant used to treat?
6) How are they prepared?