Hunting the Marshmallow

I got my first mosquito bite of the year this past Saturday. 

I looked down at the big bump on my arm just itching to be itched.

 Well hello summer.

I, unfortunately, am not possessed of the disposition to resist scratching mosquito bites. If I have a scratch, I itch…and itch…and itch.

           

So what did I do last Saturday? Did I dig my fingernails dig into my arm the whole rest of the day both relieving and furthering that insatiable itch?

Heck no. Nearby was a plantain plant. So I unassumingly bent down and took a leaf. Ripped it up, and put as much of the goopy part onto the itch as I could, before I returned the leaf back to the ground to be fertilizer for the rest of the surrounding plants.

And ‘ya know what?

Didn’t itch a bit the whole rest of the day!

 

Wondering what plantains look like. This is the Northern variety. Unfortunately there is a tropical plant also called Plantain that is a cross between a a banana and a potato. (Don’t judge, just try it) and they do not stop bug bite itchies, but they do make the best fried tostones EVER!!!

   

Here are two different varieties. They grow in almost everyone’s backyard. In my humble opinion, they SHOULD grow in everyone’s backyard, and side yard, and that annoying place right up next to the sidewalk that the weed-wacker can’t quite reach. I love plantain, very much.

Probably because it’s so helpful, and so darn hard to kill. Come to think of it, I need more stuff like that in my life.

This weekend I also continued my hunt for Marshmallow. 

Hunter's step aside, here's a real huntin' story

Last May I was riding my bike to work, when I remembered that it was Mother's Day. As I called my Mommy, I noticed pinkish flowers blooming in the wet marshy ditch beside the trail.

It was my first peek of the elusive Marshmallow in the wild!

From previous aimless wandering though my herb books… and before I finish this sentence, yes I do this. I think everyone should do this. Wander aimless within the hobby they love. You never know what you’ll find but you’ll never be bored!

I also think that you should do this so I don’t feel so alone when I do it…

So from my previous wandering through my herb books I suspected it was Marshmallow. But needed further investigation.

Yeah, the same kind we name the store bought marshmallows after.

I was tempted to stop and start collecting right then and there.

But at that time I thought the only part I could gather was the root for medicinal purposes. And I’m a bit hesitant to take roots, since it effectively ceases the plant’s future plans for kinda important things like... life!

I have since learned that you can harvest the flowers in the spring, the leaves in the summer and the roots in the fall. I like this much better!

But more importantly the reason I didn't stop was becasue I was running late for work that day, probably because some bonehead decided to take their bike.

So I didn’t have time to gather that day, but I promised to return sometime soon.

Sometime soon did not happen soon enough.  And without their flowers, they look like any other green marshy plant to me. Much as I love plants, I still am not willing to slosh around a marsh land looking for a 2-5 foot tall plant with velvety leaves, 3 lobed, serrated margins.

Sorry, even I have limits. And that looks way too close to other green lobed plants for me to feel with any certainty that it is in fact Marshmallow, and not that strange guy that shows up to Marshmallow family weddings but no one knows who he’s related to, and everyone secretly thinks he’s just one of those wedding crashers.

But this year proved a new chance to find and collect my elusive prey!

I was ready, I wanted to find it. Last weekend I walked a section of the trail I had biked the previous year and quickly realized that if it was a marsh plant I was looking for, I was in the wrong part. The forest was much too dry. It was woodlands, not a marshy, low lying wet area at all.

I walked on, hoping to see a puddle, then two, and finally an emergence of my tricky Marshmallow. I could get to know what the plant looked like, so I could go back to it in the summer and fall after the flowers left.

There was not a single puddle. And I did not find the Marshmallow.

So sad.

But I did find wintergreen! The real plant. That puts the gum to shame, with its striking cold, clear minty smell. Almost like tasting a color, deep icy blue, with flecks of emerald green and crystal imbedded in it too. Oh dear, not I’m sounding like a gum commercial.

So last weekend’s hunt was a wash, but surely I’d get lucky this weekend, right. Fortune favors the steadfast, or so I hope.

So this weekend, Mother’s Day, I was feeling lucky. I headed to a different part of the trail. I found the marshy part! I found Marsh Marigolds with their buttercup yellow little waxy flowers proudly proclaiming that the area was a bit on the soggy side.

And if that wasn’t proof enough, I accidentally stepped into a huge puddle and was surprised, in a good way, to learn that my hiking boots are more waterproof than I thought.

Hunting the marshmallow checklist

Find the marsh…check.

Be there in the right time of year…check

Look for those perdy little pink flowers….

Found your prey!

So 2011 Mother’s day I saw the Marshmallow, that precious and elusive game of mine.  So this Mother’s Day weekend they have to be around here. I have my timing right… right?

Right!?

Except that it was a short winter this year. After a half hour of searching I knew what it was like to be Elmer Fudd after a bad day of hunting. Not that anyone stuck a carrot in my musket or anything. I begrudgingly relinquished my search, guessing they must have finished their blooming, and have returned back to their green, botanical obscurity for another year. 

Tricky prey, you’ve eluded me, yet again!

I returned home with no Marshmallow flowers.

But I did find Horsetail! Which is super high in minerals, it’s an ancient plant that has been on the earth since Dinosaurs walked the earth. And who’s fossils we burn as coal.

I learned last year that horsetail can only be collected when it’s young. Otherwise, as a defense mechanism to being plucked and eaten, it forms a toxin in it. But as a youngster it doesn’t have that defense yet.

And there were loads of youngsters lining the trail!

And so, while I didn’t find what I was looking for. I definitely found something. Two things actually, if you count last weekend’s wintergreen find! I know another source of wintergreen, as well as horsetail. And am now drying horsetail that is young enough to use! And freezing wintergreen for whenever I need it!

And as for that elusive game called Marshmallow…

Well, there is always next year. My interest is not going anywhere. And come next Mother’s day, my eagle eyes will be out for those light pink flowers, or anything else I recognize in forest, fields, and yes, even swamps.

 

Here’s to the people who smell flowers.

Here’s to the people with dirt under their fingers

Here’s to the people whose bare feet have tickled the earth

Here’s to the people whose smell of sweat and wild wind.

Here’s to the people who work elbow to elbow with bees, butterflies, and bats.

Here’s to the people who talk to their plants.

Who prune other people’s plants.

Who get that fatherly look of pride when talking about seedlings,

Or that bargain shopper’s look when the find a Lemon Verbena plant, or Stevia, or other new one for their garden.

Here’s to you, with the funny suntan.

Here’s to you. 

You have my admiration, and respect.

May you take care of yourself happily.