Medicinal Herb InfoA reference archive of plants and their traditions
Not medical advice. This site documents how plants have been described and used historically. It is a botanical and folklore reference, not guidance for treating illness, and it carries no dosing instructions. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before using any plant medicinally — herbs interact with medication and some are toxic.

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Adder's Tongue

Botanical reference entry

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Parts Usually Used

Bulb, leaves

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Adder’s tongue is a perennial plant to 1 foot high; its bulbous root is light brown on the outside and white inside. It grows two leathery, basal, lanceolate, pale green, mottled leaves with purplish or brownish spots; and one drooping, miniature, lily-like, yellow flower, petals strongly curved back, nodding from the top of a central stem, appears in April or May. The narrow spike somewhat resembling a snake’s tongue gave the plant the common name of adder’s tongue.

The petals partially close at night and on cloudy days; the plant diminishes with the heat of summer. The fruit is a capsule. Other varieties: E. californicum; E. giganteum or watsonii; E. hendersonii; E. dens-canis (dog tooth violet), White trout-lily (E. albidum) flowers are white, leaves seldom mottled; found in Ontario to Georgia; Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma to Minnesota; E.

grandiflorum is a plant that grows in western North America, been shown to be slightly antimutagenic.

Where Found

Grows in thin moist woods or open areas, moist meadows, with rich soil all over the United States. Nova Scotia to Georgia; Arkansas, Oklahoma to Minnesota.

Medicinal Properties

Emetic, expectorant, anti-scrofulous, antiscorbutic, emollient, antiscorbutic, nutritive when dry

Uses

Historically, herbalists employed this plant for skin complaints, often administering an infusion or the expressed juice mixed with cider while simultaneously applying a poultice. Traditional practitioners also used poultices of the plant for wounds, to draw out splinters, and to reduce swelling. Folk traditions recorded simmering the fresh root in milk for dropsy, hiccoughs, vomiting, and lower bowel bleeding.

Native American traditions included preparing a tea from the root for fevers, while Iroquois traditions recorded the consumption of raw leaves for fertility control.

Bibliography

The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R.

, 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974