The Dirt: Medicinal plants are entering WNY’s consciousness

By Sally Cunningham

Courtesy of Marla Tschieder and the Buffalo amd Erie County Botanical Gardens

Environmentalists decry habitat destruction, the loss of rain forests and other crucial ecosystems. Among the disastrous consequences of those losses is the destruction of plants we depend on for medicine, both traditional and modern. Worse, we’re losing species that could hold the secrets to potential cures. How timely then, that the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens—the queen of our region’s plant science community—is creating permanent indoor and outdoor displays called Medicinal Gardens. The displays and plantings will educate us about the fundamental role of plants in medicine. The outdoor garden, designed as a Medicine Wheel, will show mostly native, medicinal plants, and will be a place for contemplation, meditation and perhaps even personal healing.

A collaboration between science and spirit

The collaborators that bring this indoor/outdoor display to the Botanical Gardens illustrate the breadth of the body of knowledge and inquiry called herbal medicine. Scientists, represented by the D’Youville College School of Pharmacy and Mercy Hospital of Buffalo (Catholic Health System) use research to identify plant-based compounds with potential pharmaceutical and medicinal value. Many look to the centuries of healing practices and traditions held by Native Americans and many other world cultures, for clues to help them understand human-animal-plant interactions. Many are uncomfortable when the spiritual nature of herbalism comes up.

Marian Prezyna, a “green-spirited folkloric herbalist” and teacher (catstailfarm.com) explains the modern science versus traditional healing difference this way: “It’s a matter of quick-fixes versus a holistic approach to healing. Herbal medicine is concerned with the healing process, including being in the presence of the plant. You don’t just substitute an herb in a bottle for a pill from the doctor.” Prezyna is “ecstatic to see the Botanical Gardens draw attention to the healing properties of herbs.”

The Medicine Wheel design (pictured) is the basis for the future outdoor medicinal garden design, inspired by the Seneca Nation’s participation in this project. Yolanda Smith, a Seneca Nation medicine gatherer, recommended many native plants known for their healing properties for the garden. At a press conference in October, Smith said good medicine starts with eating whole, organic, healthful food. “Stay out of the can; stay out of the box,” she says.

Evolution of the project

Since coming to the Botanical Gardens four years ago, horticulturist Teresa Mazikowski longed for a medicinal plant garden. “It’s important that people understand how important plants are,” she says. “We can’t just devastate native plantings.” When approached by representatives from D’Youville’s School of Pharmacy and Mercy Hospital, she seized the opportunity to collaborate.

For the garden design, Mazikowski worked with Marla Tschieder, a landscape architect and designer who volunteers as a Botanical Gardens docent. The plant list is still evolving but will include native medicinal plants—with signage to illustrate their traditional uses—as well as hardy ornamental plants that are known for medicinal properties.

Plant selections include angelica, basil, burdock, calendula, clary sage, comfrey, dandelion, echinacea, evening primrose, garlic, geranium, German chamomile, ginger root, lavender, mustard, nettles, peppermint, rugosa rose, and St. John’s wort. The medicine wheel shape will incorporate most of the plants, both native and exotic, but Tschieder also envisions some shrubs or trees—elderberries, native hawthorns—to provide shade and a sitting area.

Indoors—medicinal plants of the world

In October, for National Pharmacy Month and Cancer Prevention Month, the project opened with a small display of cancer-fighting plants. Ginseng, saw palmetto, turmeric, May apple, pacific yews, Madagascar periwinkle, and cayenne pepper were among them.

In February, Heart Health Month, the focus will be on plants with traditional and modern cardiovascular benefits. “I’m trying to get the digitalis (foxglove) not to go dormant,” says Mazikowski, “and it’s not easy. Plants know when it’s winter—even at the Botanical Gardens.” The indoor plant educational display will continue to grow and change throughout the seasons.

Herbal wisdom

Folkloric herbalists and the medical community agree about several things—that plants are key components for good nutrition, that plants are essential for medicinal purposes, and that we are losing invaluable species as rainforests and other habitats are destroyed. Spokespersons from most healing communities also agree about the dangers of ill-informed uses of plants. “We will have on-going education and thorough signage with warnings about plants that can be poisonous if used improperly,” says Mazikowski. “People need to know you can’t just go out and use digitalis leaves for your heart condition.”

Dr. Robert K. Drobitch, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical, Social and Administrative Sciences at D’Youville College, reinforced that caution in the medicinal garden’s kick-off press conference. He pointed out that “natural” doesn’t equal “safe,” that herbal remedies can interact dangerously with prescription drugs, and that herbal products vary in potency and effectiveness depending upon soil, production, and time of harvest. As Marian Prezyna puts it, “Long before you make a tea or a tincture, you study plants. If you’re using plants, you find out where they came from. Were they processed? Sprayed? Grown over thirty feet from a road? You identify a plant three times before you use it. You find a teacher and study.”

The Medicinal Garden will also remind us that not all knowledge comes from books or modern research. Indigenous people have studied and used plants for healing over centuries—long before the AMA and FDA existed. “Natives were the first environmentalists,” Ken Parker explained. As a native plants expert (founder of Sweetgrass Gardens), Ken reminds us that most native cultures don’t have written histories; the knowledge is passed down through generations. He hopes the Botanical Gardens display will reinforce respect for native plants and represent the Native approach to nature: “Take only what you need.”

Sally Cunningham (CNLP) is a garden writer and teacher who focuses on nature-friendly landscapes and uses native plants. She directs the National Garden Festival, offers education and consulting at Lockwood’s Greenhouses, and gives advice on Sunday mornings on WIVB-TV (Channel 4).