Hepatica

Parts Usually Used

Leaves, flowers

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Hepatica is a small perennial plant; the much-branched rootstock produces a rosette of rounded 3-lobed, long-petioled, leathery evergreen leaves which are green on top and reddish-purple beneath. The leaves last through the winter and are maroon all winter, the new leaves appearing after the plant flowers. The light blue, sometimes reddish-blue or white flowers grow on hairy scapes from March to early June.

Blooms appear before the semi-evergreen leaves become lush. The genus name Hepatica refers to the liverlike shape of the leaves. The leaves are traditionally used for liver ailments as the name implies. Another variety: Sharp-lobed hepatica or Heart liverleaf (H. acutiloba) is similar to round-leaved hepatica, except that its leaves have pointed lobes and that it flowers (bluish-lavender or pinkish, though often whitish) in February to early June.

Six to ten “petals” are actually sepals. Found in rich woods. Western Maine to Georgia; Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri to Minnesota. Medicinally, both plants are equivalent.

Where Found

Grows in woodlands of the eastern United States, westward to Iowa and Missouri, and in Canada and Europe. Found in warm, moist tropical conditions, along stream banks and in damp shaded forests (some occur in drier situations) from Nova Scotia to Georgia; Alabama, Missouri to Manitoba.

Medicinal Properties

Diuretic, pectoral, mild mucilaginous, deobstruent, demulcent, tonic, astringent

Legends, Myths and Stories

Hepatica is one of our earliest harbingers of spring. The liverworts or hepatica include some 8,500 species in approximately 237 genera. Most of them are small, leafy plants, easily and commonly mistaken for mosses.

Uses

Historically, herbalists administered the tea for respiratory complaints such as chronic bronchitis, coughs, colds, and sore throats, as well as for fevers and headaches. Traditional practitioners also employed the infusion for digestive and systemic issues, including jaundice, liver congestion, gallbladder disorders, indigestion, and various kidney ailments. Furthermore, folk traditions utilized the plant to address internal bleeding, particularly gastric hemorrhage and the vomiting of blood.

Bibliography

Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974 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