Celebrating Healing Plants - Issue #3 Wood Lily (Lilium Philadelphicum)
The plant I am choosing to celebrate is my provincial floral emblem - The Wood Lily (Lilium Philadelphicum).
This Saskatchewan provincial floral emblem is protected under the Provincial Emblems and Honors Act, and cannot be picked, uprooted or destroyed in any manner so I do not harvest it in any way but I do delight in it's beautiful orange blossoms gracing our landscape.
They do grow plentifully in our area and the Native Americans used them for food and medicines.
Food Uses
It was the flowers, seeds and bulbs that were used as food but primarily the bulbs were used. Used like potatoes to thicken stews or cooked up by boiling them in a couple of changes of boiling water to have as a side dish. Often the bulbs were dried for wintertime use. The cooked bulbs could be dried and mashed up to form thin cakes.
The beautiful flowers could be added to salads to add some color and a delicious taste.
Medicinal Uses
Medicinal teas can be made from the roots or bulbs and used to treat such things as coughs and fevers, stomach problems and also to help woman in child labor deliver the after birth. Plus the cooked bulbs can be applied to swelling, bruises, sores and wounds. Another interesting use is to make a poultice of the flowers to apply to spider bites or how about this one I found at Guiding Instincts The bulbs could be dried, mashed with stink bugs, powdered and used against witchcraft or a decoction of the roots could be taken by a wife as an emetic and used as a wash if her husband was unfaithful.
Native uses of Wood Lily image taken from Native American Ethnobotany
Check out their Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants
I'll leave you with one last scene from the road by our house, with the wood lilies blooming alon side the wild roses in late spring, early summer.
All the pictures of the wood lily were taken by me with my Canon PowerShot A495
The best one has posted. Thanks so much for posting so beautiful.
you're welcome
I love these!! My mother had them, or something incredibly similar, in our garden in Australia. I had no idea of the medicinal use and feel enriched this morning - both by the new knowledge and simply by the lovely memory of my girlhood garden. :)
They really brighten my day when they come into bloom. these are the wild lilies growing in the ditches. I also have planted other Asiatic lilies in my garden that are in various colors. Love those Lilies and I'm glad I brought back some fond memories for you.
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Gorgeous flowers full stop it constantly amazes me that such seemingly useless plants that you think a decorative only can have so many uses. Thanks for sharing. I feel I am learning about so many plants in America in particular that I'm not really familiar with.
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That was my impression of the Wood Lilies that they were just gorgeous to look at but here in Saskatchewan it is eligle to harvest them for they are our provincial emblem. Then I started hearing how the Native Americans had traditionally used them ( I'm working on a project for learning the culture through images with my First Nations friend) so I've included them in my issues for Celebrating Healing Plants.