09/15/2025
POISONOUS PLANT ALERT!
🌿It's so important to know the plants! Would you know for instance if this is Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) or the poisonous White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)?
🌿This plant is the poisonous White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima). As with many plants of similar common names, White Snakeroot has a history of use for being poulticed on snakebites and was even used internally by local native tribes who knew how to approach the Spirit of the Plant with deep respect and reverence thereby earning the Plant's trust and healing wisdom of how to work with the plant correctly.
🌿Despite the historical uses, this is a plant that should not be ingested as it is too dangerous to work with safely. Poisonings from this Plant have caused thousands of deaths due to something called "milk sickness" and is known as "the w**d that killed President Lincoln's mother". When large quantities are consumed by cows, the chemical tremetol is concentrated in their milk. When the milk is then consumed by humans, it causes trembling, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, and in many cases, death. In the 1800's milk sickness was so common that certain areas where the illness was rampant were given names such as "Milk Sick Cove" and "Milk Sick Ridge". Whole families would often succumb to the illness and die as doctors watched helplessly unaware of what was causing the sickness. President Abraham Lincoln's mother succumbed to the illness when he was just 9 years old.
🌿The cause was discovered in 1834 by a Doctor by the name of Anna Bixby. Unfortunately word traveled slowly and women doctors being rare were also not listened to. So it wasn't until the 1900's that the illness was eradicated and today is virtually non-existent. It was found that tremetol occurs only in the fresh plant and is destroyed when the plant is dried or heated.
🌿Many plants need to be worked with in very specific ways in order to be used safely. Some have medicinal parts and poisonous parts on the same plant. Others are poisonous at certain stages of growth and medicinal at others. There can also be many contraindications for seemingly safe to use plants. This is the art of the Herbalist. It's not something that can be fully learned in a few months or even a few years, it takes time, attention to detail, and careful study of the plants. If you'd like to begin your herbal journey with an experienced herbalist and healer, be sure to sign up for the Green Girl email list at greengirlherbs.net to be notified of upcoming classes and events.💚🌱🌿
