Gumweed (Grindelia sp.)

I am thrilled! Tomorrow I get to head west of Austin, into the beautiful Hill Country, and gather some gumweed (Grindelia sp.). My friend Shakti says it’s blooming! and so we will go to gather this old and much-needed friend.

The last time I gathered gumweed was 1997. It was actually my first ever wildcrafting trip; my friend Deirdre and I set out to study with Michael Moore (the herbalist not the filmmaker) in the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado. But I ran out of that batch of gumweed tincture years ago, and have been unable to find it since. Until this spring.

This member of the composite family (Asteraceae) has yellow flowers (no surprise if you know the composite family), sticky leaves, and even stickier flowerheads. This sticky resin may serve us in two ways as medicine: the first, as a first rate bronchitis remedy, and the second, my favorite, ... as a poison ivy remedy. We just gather the sticky flowerheads to make poison ivy remedy tincture.

One customer in particular is very poison ivy prone, and has been asking me for more gumweed for the past two years. The first time she used it, I told her to take the tincture internally, and to cut out spicy foods, dairy, and alcohol. She reported definite relief from the itching, and the poison ivy cleared up more quickly than usual.

So for all of you that are poison ivy magnets, give us a couple of weeks for the tincture to macerate, then go ahead and place your order for gumweed tincture, the poison ivy remedy supreme!