Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) Flashcards
(10 cards)
What are the energetics of Garlic Mustard?
What are other names for Garlic Mustard?
Jack by the hedge
Describe the Garlic Mustard plant.
Biennial plant (2 year life cycle):
1st year produces a rosette of smooth but and deeply veined leaves.
2nd year, plant shoots up rapidly in the spring producing white flowers that turn to seed.
Taste: garlicky, bitter
What is the plant used for?
Food: edible young leaves, flowers and seed pods (salads, soups, stews, etc)
Medicinal: Diuretic (promotes elimination of waste from the system), Antiasthmatic (relieves symptoms of asthma), Antiscorbutic (preventing or curing scurvy), Antiseptic (prevent growth of bacteria), Deobstruent (helps remove obstruction in the body to promote the smoother pathway of fluids), Diaphoretic (promote sweating), Vermifuge (destroy and expels parasitic worms), Vulnerary (wound healing)
What are the medicinal uses of Garlic Mustard?
Antiasthmatic (relieves symptoms of asthma)
Antiscorbutic (preventing or curing scurvy)
Antiseptic (prevent growth of bacteria)
Deobstruent (helps remove obstruction in the body to promote the smoother pathway of fluids)
Diaphoretic (promote sweating)
Vermifuge (destroy and expels parasitic worms)
Vulnerary (wound healing)
What are the origins of Garlic Mustard? How and when was it introduced into North America?
Brought to North America in the 1800 by settlers from the British Isles (genetics of plant)
What are Ecological effects of Garlic Mustard?
Invasive plants: Allopathic (releases chemicals that interfere with the growth of native plants including killing the fungi network that feed other and native plants), spreads rapidly and aggressively and outcompetes native species
Likes to grow in shaded areas, edge of woods, damp hedgerows
What are the properties and actions of Garlic Mustard plant?
Antiasthmatic (relieves symptoms of asthma)
Antiscorbutic (preventing or curing scurvy)
Antiseptic (prevent growth of bacteria)
Deobstruent (helps remove obstruction in the body to promote the smoother pathway of fluids)
Diaphoretic (promote sweating)
Vermifuge (destroy and expels parasitic worms)
Vulnerary (wound healing)
What parts of the Garlic Mustard plant is used for medicine?
Leaves, stems, roots
The leaves (internal) promote sweating and to treat bronchitis, asthma and eczema
The leaves (externally) used as an antiseptic poultice on ulcers etc, and are effective in relieving the itching caused by bites and stings
The roots are chopped up small and then heated in oil to make an ointment to rub on the chest in order to bring relief from bronchitis
The juice of the plant has an inhibitory effect on Bacillus pyocyaneum and on gram-negative bacteria of the typhoid-paratyphoid-enteritis group
Interesting facts of Garlic Mustard plant.
The plant can be used to make a yellow dye.
Reproduces through seed so important to harvest before the plant goes to seed.
White tailed deer and other factors such as land development may be responsible for the overpopulation of Garlic Mustard.
Research seems to indicate that the plant self regulates in a 20-30 year cycle. When colony is young, they release lots of chemicals and release less as they age which allows for native species to move back in.
To remove, pull it in its second year and make sure you pull the S shaped root out. Dispose in a garbage bag and leave out in the sun to decompose. Do NOT put in compost! It will take about 5 years of pulling to eradicate them from an infested place.
