Botanical Name: Mitchella repens | Family: Rubiaceae
Common name(s): Squaw Vine, Patridgeberry, Twinberry, Deerberry
GROWING
- Evergreen herb | Zone 4-9 | 1 foot tall | White flowers in late spring/early summer followed by red berries
- Partial to full shade| Consistently moist soil
HARVESTING
Harvest the aerial parts and berries in late summer.
PREPARATION / DOSAGE
Infusion: Pour 1 cup of boiling water onto 1 teaspoons of the herb and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Drink 3x/day.
Tincture: 1-2ml 3x/day
MEDICAL
Constituents: Mucilage, saponins. Not very well known but probably also contains alkaloids, glycosides, and tannins
Actions: Astringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, parturient, tonic
Uses: Painful periods (dysmenorrhoea), preparing the uterus for childbirth, absent periods (amenorrhea), colitis, diarrhea
Combinations: Use with raspberry leaves for a parturient tonic.
Cautions: Do not take during the first 6 months of pregnancy.
CHINESE MEDICINE
Bitter, cool energy
SOURCES
- The Way of Herbs, Michael Tierra
- Holistic Herbal, David Hoffmann
- Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, Andrew Chevallier
- Dave’s Garden
- photo credit: dogtooth77 Mitchella repens in fruit via photopin (license)
It consistently amazes me when I do one of these materia medica only to find out that it is a plant I know – by sight, not by name. I love connecting the dots! I live in a forest town and see this plant all over the place, and I usually bend a leaf and sniff it to see if it is wintergreen, a look-alike.
