Fireweed the Healer
Fireweed is an herb that helps heal people, animals, and the environment. It blankets areas that have experienced trauma with a useful healing beautiful flower, bringing hope like the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Fireweed is a member of the Onagraceae (Evening Primrose) Family. Fireweed’s Latin binomial is Epilobium angustifolium. Epilobium, the genus name, is Greek, epi meaning “upon” and lobium meaning “pods,” referring to its blooming pattern. The species name angustifolium means “narrow leaved”. Fireweed also goes by the names willow weed, great willow herb, small leaf willow herb, spiked willow herb, bay willow, Persian willow, rose bay, firetop, burntweed, French willow, Indian wickup, herb wickopy, Sally, and Sally bloom. The plant became known in England as bomb weed due to its rapid colonization of bomb craters after the Second World War.
A Native American legend tells of a maiden who rescues her lover in captivity by a neighboring tribe. Before he was about to be tortured, she set fire to the forest around the camp, and as the tribe fled, she carried her wounded love and ran through the woods, though he was heavy. Wherever her moccasins touched the ground, a flame sprang up driving the enemy back. As the tribe gave up the chase, fireweed sprang up through the blackened earth. Fireweed’s increase seems to have occurred at the same time as the expansion of the railway network and the occurring soil disturbance.
Fireweed’s stems, leaves, buds, flowers, roots are all used as medicine and are considered alterative, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, antiseptic, astringent, demulcent, emollient, and mildly laxative.
According to Studies conducted in 1990, in what was once Yugoslavia, fireweed has activity against candida, strep and staph. Fireweed can gradually reduce inflammation, by inhibiting inflammatory prostaglandins. Throughout history, fireweed leaves and flowers have been used to treat asthma, candida, colitis, constipation, cough, cramps, diarrhea, hiccoughs, ulcers, and upset stomach. The roots reduce prostate inflammation, male urinary problems, cough, sore throat, tuberculosis, as well as made into a decoction for internal injuries due to heavy lifting. The flowers are very antiseptic. They can be infused or juiced and used as a gargle for laryngitis or sore throat.
Fireweed can be eaten raw or cooked. Young shoots collected in spring can be prepared like asparagus. Use the leaves and unopened buds like spinach. Flowers make a beautiful addition to any salad! Fireweed honey is spicy and considered one of the finest. Leaves are used to make a tea and blend well with mint and dried berries. Summer stems can be cut lengthwise, drawn through the teeth like an artichoke, and the edible center is very nourishing. As the plant matures the leaves become tough and somewhat bitter. Fireweed jams, jellies, syrups, ice cream and candies are sold in Alaska. Deer, elk and grizzly bears all eat fireweed. Fireweed contains beta-carotene, C, flavones (quercitin, kaempferol), tannins, mucilage, sugars, pectin, and beta-sitosterol. Harvest shoots for food in spring. Harvest the flower, as far down on the stem where leaves are green and unwithered.
Fireweed provides plentiful nectar for the bees who make an excellent spicy honey from it. The fluff that carries the seeds makes excellent fire tinder. The stringy fibers of the stems can be made into twine (Peel off outer stem, dry plant, soak in water and twist to make twine.) Native peoples of Puget Sound wove fireweed fluff into mountain goat wool. Other Natives blended fireweed down with duck feathers to make blankets. The fluff has also been used to make padding for quilts, mattresses, and to insulate clothing. Blackfeet Natives have rubbed fireweed flowers on mittens and rawhide to create a type of waterproofing.
Fireweed flower essence is said to be cleansing of old energy patterns, so new life can enter. It is also said to be grounding, helping one to gain restoration and nourishment after trauma. On a spiritual level it is said to help the soul connect with higher levels. It can also help heal and emotionally wounded heart and promote forgiveness. It is excellent for those such as war vets and victims of trauma.
Fireweed is a beautiful garden ornamental. It can change a dismal burnt landscape into a sea of pink within a year. Adele Dawson, author of Health, Happiness and the Pursuit of Herbs wrote of fireweed as “ a badge of Nature’s renewal program: “No soil is too thin, poor, or unlikely for fireweed.” A perennial, Fireweed often grows in masses from low elevations to high altitudes, fireweed is found in gravel, along riverbanks, and roadsides. Fireweed can grow two to seven feet tall, with reddish stalks becoming leaves, bearing large pink and purple four petaled flowers with 8 anthers, on spikes. Flowers bloom first on the bottom and increasing upwards. Leaves are numerous, alternate, lance and willow shaped, distinctly veined, lighter in color on the undersides. Leaves and stems are smooth. Seed heads look like plumes. Pods are long and narrow and filled with a feathery down that unfold and blow in the wind, Seeds disperse easily and also proliferates by creeping stems. Harvest seedpods with caution because if you leave them in your room or car, they fluff onto everything.
Found growing in many of the planet’s northern regions, especially where the earth has been recently burned, bulldozed, logged areas, oil spilled, next to railways, avalanched tracks, meadows, thickets, helping to heal a scorched and wounded planet. As the forest regrows fireweed diminishes. It tolerates thin and poor soils. It likes potash in the soil (rich in wood ash). Legend says that when the final fireweed flower blooms, snow is just days away.