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Follow the questions we are asked and the answers that are of general benefit to all.
Daisy Family
Asteraceae (Compositae)
Susan M. Parker 2004
The ‘Daisy' Family of plants like the ‘Mint' Family is extremely large and includes many familiar and common garden plants, herbs and food plants. It also provides the gardener with a number of tenacious weeds! Asteraceae has superseded Compositae as the botanical name for the family as Botanists seem to rename and reclassify the properties of plants on a regular basis. Older books will use the older form, Compositae while more recent publications will use both or the newer Asteraceae.
You are probably thinking to yourselves, ‘I know what a daisy looks like but the family?'
As a whole, the Daisy family has few poisonous members out of a total of about 800 genera and 13,000 species. They provide us with food, medicine, scent and beautiful gardens and can be found growing throughout most of the globe except in the arctic and the deep tropics. They are found growing in a variety of conditions; wet places, mountains, open meadows, and in dry arid conditions. Although some grow quite large they seldom develop bark to become woody shrubs or small trees nor are they climbers. Most spring directly from the earth from leaf rosettes or fleshy stems and flower profusely, readily rushing to seed even after being picked. Many of us have experienced this with flowering dandelions and wild lettuce plants on a compost heap spreading their newly released wind borne seeds after we have pulled the parent from the garden. We can be compensated though by knowing that we are providing a food source for the honeybee, one of our most valuable friends in the garden or farm. In the regions of the earth that are not blessed with a long growing season, bees rely on the pollen of dandelions and other daisy family members at times of the year when few other plants are flowering.
The daisy is a common flower form and comes in many shapes and hues. The most representative are the small blooms with raying white petals and sunny golden centers represented by the Chrysanthemums (the Shasta and Marguerite daisies), German Chamomile, the English Daisy ( Bellis perennis ) and Tanacetum (Feverfew). Daisies can also be all yellow or orange as Arnica or Calendula flowers, blue as the beautiful azure Chicory flower, or purple as the Echinacea purpurea or angustifolia. Size too is widely diverse and the family includes the very, very large giant Sunflowers as well as the very small composite yarrow flowers.
There are two branches of this family characterized by their flower shapes. All members are characterized by raying petals around, usually, a distinct center. The two types of flower, the ligulate, with its strap or tongue-like florets and the tubuliflorae with its tubular flower petals botanically differentiate the two subfamilies. To complicate the picture many members contain both types of petals and the characteristics can be manipulated by selective breeding. The secondary identifying characteristics are perhaps more obvious and to me more interesting. In the ligulilflorae, the flowers open into the horizontal plane and the stems and leaves produce latex, represented by dandelions, lettuce, chicory and calendula. The seeds of the tubuliflorae contain large quantities of fatty oil like the sunflowers and safflower or volatile oils like the chamomiles, yarrow, arnica or helichrysum.
Asteraceae, ‘daisy', is a family of plants that provides both food and medicine. Since food is medicine and medicine is best as food, we can view the ‘daisy' members that serve as both nutrition and healing together. Lettuce, chicory and the thistles are foods with bitter properties and aid the digestive process by stimulating the flow of bile. Chamomile, drunk as an after dinner tea or tisane, can also be considered a digestive bitter, which is one of the properties that contribute to its' being known for promoting sleep at night. The French have a tradition of having the salad at the end of the meal to help digest food already eaten while our tradition of eating it before the meal helps to prepare the digestion for what is coming. Did you ever wonder why you felt sleepy after a large meal? The digestive process is activated and is all consuming to the body until the job is done overriding other activities, like thinking, until the meal is dealt with. Bitter tastes help to activate and facilitate the digestive processes and speed it along. When we cannot fall asleep easily at night, a bitter taste in a tincture, a bitter salad or an aperitif can ease us into our dreams. In short, we are refocused to the sleep inducing digestive realm and out of our wakeful thinking realm.
Being such a large family we can further explore the differences between the sub groups and some of the common medicinal members of the family.
The tubuliflorae, or tubular flower plants have secondary characteristics of being producers of oil, both fatty, like sunflower oil, and volatile oil, like chamomile or yarrow essential oil. Oils represent the quality of warmth since they hold energy in the form as calories and can be burned as food inside the body and used as fuel in lamps or candles. This warmth quality can be differentiated further as a polarity between the heavier fatty oils such as sunflower or safflower oil used in cooking and the volatile essential oils used in Aromatherapy. The polarity is represented in the first group coalescing, condensing in oily food stuffs for cooking and eating and the later group diffusing outwards into the atmosphere with volatility and the plants' characteristic scents.
The aromatic members of the tubuliflorae division are important medicines. The Chamomiles both Roman and German are some of the most familiar and are used as teas and as external treatments. The most striking aspect of the essential oil of German chamomile is its deep blue color that comes from Chamazulene, from the Latin asura or blue. It is a potent medicine for treating inflammation and supporting immune system functioning. The depth of the color depends on the concentration of azulene and will vary with growing conditions and soil composition. Azulene is present in a number of other plants in the daisy family such as Yarrow and Tansy. The essential oils of these plants will also distill blue but perhaps not as deeply as a true wild Matricaria chamomilla, the German Chamomile.
The Daisy family also includes a number of plants used for their vulnerary or, wound healing properties. Arnica is a meadow plant with small yellow daisy formed flowers. It is widely recognized as a treatment for injury to the body and is found in gels and ointments for external use and as a homeopathic remedy for internal use. The homeopathic remedy is also excellent for treatment of emotional trauma and for jet lag and is one of the first remedies I reach for if I, or anyone in my family is injured. Calendula, a closely related relative is the preeminent skin herb. It is antiseptic and analgesic containing salicylic acid, the active principle in aspirin. Extracts of the flower aid the formation of new tissue, suppress inflammation and stimulate the healing process. Its volatile oils and resinous pigments related to the carotenes are soothing, healing and pain relieving. Calendula petals can be added to salads or soup where they help to boost immunity and ease the lymphatic system. Arnica on the other hand should only be consumed in homeopathic doses, as the plant has poisonous properties when taken internally.
When on a hike take note of the Yarrow along the trail. In the event of an accident where there is bleeding Yarrow can stop the flow and keep the wound clean. Old descriptive names for Yarrow are “Soldier's woundwort,” “Carpenter's weed” and Herba militaris, clear allusions to the traditional uses of the plant. Its Latin name Achillea comes from Achilles the great warrior of Homer's Trojan epic who used it to treat his soldiers wounds. Whereas Arnica is best for bruises, wounds and trauma, Yarrow is traditionally used for deep wounds and hemorrhaging. Internally it helps the liver and digestive functions due to its volatile oils and bitter principles. The English daisy, Bellis perennis , while less strong a medicine than Yarrow or Arnica, is also a wound herb for use on fresh wounds, for bruises and injury and it can be used similarly to Arnica. In the garden it forms a beautiful carpet of low-lying leaves and traditional daisy flowers where there is sufficient moisture to support its growth.
Another whole class of aromatic ‘daisy' plants is the Artemisia, or sagebrush group. Wormwood is the source for the green psychoactive (and poisonous) Absinthe; Sweet Annie is used as a treatment of malaria in Asia ; Mugwort is used for digestion, digestive parasites, visionary dreams and smudging against unwanted spirit energies. The herbal aromas of this group are some of my favorite scents. The native western Mugworts, A. douglasiana and A. californica, found on the coasts and valleys of California and the sagebrush A. tridentata and White sage, A. apiana of the mountains and deserts are to me, distinctive scents that I associate with time spent in California .
An underlying theme of the Daisy family members is their applications in the treatment and promotion of the metabolism and the digestive processes. The thistles, also of the daisy clan, are renowned for promoting digestion, treatment of the liver and bile production. Burdock, known as Gobo in Japan , is eaten to “cleanse and strengthen the blood” by its bitters, tannins, mucilage and volatile oils. Artichokes, a favorite product of California and coastal farms up and down the West coast, are the best-known thistles and one that makes it onto the dinner table. Blessed Thistle and Milk Thistle are digestive and liver medicines respectively. Other latex bearing and digestion promoting plants include Dandelion, the Chicories and the Wild Lettuce from which our many, many diverse table lettuces have been developed. The root of Elecampane, a plant resembling a large rough sunflower is traditionally used as a lung herb for bronchitis and respiratory conditions but contains bitter compounds, volatile oils and azulene that can be used to treat the digestive processes as well.
So, the next time you see a daisy remember the medicine, food, scent and infinite variations in the 13,000 species throughout 800 genera that is represented in the single flower. Many volumes could be written on the group and this article has provides only a brief introduction.
The Farmer's Market is an excellent place to meet the family's food members. How about a salad of lettuce and chicory with Calendula petals, artichoke hearts and a dressing of Sunflower oil mixed with an herbal vinegar made with Dandelion or Echinacea flowers and followed by a cup of Chamomile tea; meet the Daisy!
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