White Weed

Parts Usually Used

Leaves, flowers

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

White weed is a perennial plant; the furrowed, simple or sparingly branched stem grows from 1-3 feet high and bears alternate, toothed, sessile and clasping leaves. Both stem and radical leaves are spatulate or obovate with rounded ends; the radical leaves are more strongly toothed. The stem, and the branch, if any, is topped by a solitary flower head with yellow disk and white rays.

Where Found

Grows in fields and waste places over most of North America, Europe, and Asia as a common weed.

Medicinal Properties

Diaphoretic, diuretic, irritant

Uses

Historically, herbalists used white weed to promote sweating and administered it for urinary complaints, dropsy, sciatica, and gout. Practitioners also recommended the plant for runny eyes and various pulmonary conditions, including using preparations of the dried plant or daisy flowers boiled with honey for asthma attacks. Externally, folk traditions applied it to stimulate local blood flow and used it on warts, pustules, ulcers, wounds, and bruises.

Bibliography

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) The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. , 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