I bet you have at least 1 of these 5 Chinese medicinal & edible plants living incognito in your Garden or at least are familiar with it!

Did you know that as plants started to come over from China, they were adopted not as medicines in America, but as landscaping plants, flowers, shrubs & trees?

This all started with Marco Polo in the 13th century as he began the cultural exchange of plant material. From there it grew to such famous botanical gardens as Britain’s Royal Botanical Gardens at Keu and from there western botanists sought useful and especially ornamental flowers to introduce to the US.

The Chinese Material Medica is a very extensive compilation that goes back to over 5000 years of (documented) use.

As @lilygolightly reminded me in a comments today,

Natural health practitioners in China were paid to keep people well, to maintain their good health. Payment stopped if the person became sick.

Imagine if we had that system today!Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the oldest documented natural holistic medicine traditions on the earth, on par with Ayurveda. In it there is everything from the more obscure and perhaps controversial turtle shell & tiger penis, to the things we consider weeds like Honeysuckle & Kudzu. What most are not aware of, however, is that many common landscaping plants in our gardens are highly prized herbal medicines from China.

As Steven Foster writes in his book Herbal Emissaries,

Many Chinese medicinal plants are better known to the vast majority of Americans as ornamental garden perennials, among them daylilies, forsythia, chrysanthemum, and peonies. Others are known as shade or fruit producing trees, such as white mulberry, gingkos, or the silk tree.

In the following paragraphs I’m going to focus on a handful of these as I describe their medicinal and other uses. One cool thing about this is that it makes plant-speak accessible for more people as many are already familiar with them, have them in their gardens or in landscaping around their neighborhoods or cities. As these plants are literally everywhere, once people learn their uses they can benefit and take part in speaking the language of these fantastic allies. Again, what is a flower in one place may be used as a powerful medicine in another.

Daylily

Hemerocallis spp. or Xuan-cao

The flower of the dailylily is edible and can be consumed in salads fresh. The root is used as a medicine for treating edema, urinary conditions, jaundice, hepatitis, toothache, bloody stools, uterine bleeding and mastitis.

Mulberry

Morus alba or Sang-Ye

Virtually all parts of the mulberry tree are used in one form or other. Leaves are prescribed for colds, headache, red eyes, sore throat, cough due to lung heat, eczema. Root bark is used for asthma and cough, bronchitis, high blood pressure, diabetes, traumatic injuries and hypertension. Fruits are used for vertigo, tinnitus, dizziness, palpitation, constipation, poor eyesight, blood deficiency and weak joints.

Japanese Honeysuckle

Lonicera japonica or Jin-Yin-Hua and Ren-Dong-Teng

Flowers are used to treat infections of the upper respiratory tract, fever, colds, flu, acute mastitis, acute tonsillitis, lung abscesses, pus, inflammatory diseases with redness of the skin and swelling. Stems are used for rheumatism, urticaria, mumps, upper respiratory tract, flu and appendicitis. An injectible form of the flowers is used in Chinese hospitals to treat injected injuries with pus.

Peony

Paeonia lactiflora or Bao-Shao

The root is used for hypertension headaches, vertigo due to blood deficiency, pain the chest and sides, stomach and intestinal pain, diarrhea, difficult or painful menstruation, uterine bleeding or spontaneous perspiration. It was traditionally used as a treatment for knife wounds. May also prevent gastric ulcers from nervousness and is antibacterial and antiviral.

Forsythia

Forsythia suspensa or Lian-Quiao

The dried ripe fruit is used as pus-eliminating and anti-inflammatory action, internally and externally. For example, in the treatment of inflamed sores, a decoction of the fruit is used. It also has been noted in treating acute infectious disease, pulmonary tuberculosis, cervical lymph node tuberculosis, skin infections, acute viral hepatitis, hemorrhage of the retina and purpurial skin lesions. Taken as a capsule or as a tea.

So how many of these are you familiar with and/or do you have in your garden/yard? I am very curious!

Other flowers that you’re probably familiar with that I didn’t share details of include Balloon Flower (Jie-geng), Cockscomb (Ji-guan-hua), Dianthus (Qu-mai) and Mums (Ju-hua).

Personally I grew up around each of these plants and only slowly learned of their edible and medicinal values as my interest in Herbalism & Wild Edibles grew!

Plants speak a language that we can learn and implement in our daily lives. If you found this interesting, feel free to give it an resteem to share the knowledge! Thanks for stopping by ☺

Thanks to Steven Foster for writing such a book that brings so many fantastic points together.

All photos from Pixabay.