Inula Helenium. With a name like that, you know the medicine has history, it’s written into mythology. Helen of Troy and her tears shed over the countryside… Elecampane… This alluringly fragrant, warming, spicy sweet bitter root, is perfect for respiratory infections. Perfect for the excess mucus, those deep bronchial infections. And she’s also an excellent digestive bitter, she is full of inulin, a prebiotic to balance your intestinal flora. Flora, yes, and so so floral. Her floral perfume is like nothing else. A smell I’ve never experienced, and will never mistake for anything else ever again. Magic. You may recoil at the pungency of fragrant, warming, spicy sweet bitter root, or you may get all swoony like me, and nibble and sniff at dirty roots while you weed and dig just for a little bit of that magic taste, and the next moment be so blown away by the size of her leaves that you want the whole world to see. The wild Medusa of her roots can be dug up in the late summer, or fall, and chopped and dried and taken as a decoction, tincture, infused honey, or syrup. Have you ever seen this beauty grown in the garden in July? It’s a majesty of a plant; last year’s tiny seed is now taller than me. And her fluffy seeds float up and root down throughout the garden, wherever they please, so with her eventual size and grand presence, this is something to be ware.
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