The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

We wish you peace and health!

Staggerbush

Scientific Names

Staggerbush

  • Lyonia mariana L.
  • Heath family

Parts Usually Used

Leaves
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Slender, deciduous shrub; to 7 feet in height. Leaves thin, oblong to oval. White or pinkish flowers in umbel-like racemes, in clusters on old leafless branches; April to June.
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Where Found

Sandy, acid pine thickets. Southern Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York to Florida, eastern Texas to Arkansas.
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Staggerbush

Legends, Myths and Stories

Benjamin Smith Barton, in his classic Essay Towards a Materia Medica of the United States (1801), wrote that leaf tea was used as wash of “disagreeable ulceration of the feet, which is not uncommon” in the southern states.
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Uses

Cherokee Indians used leaf tea externally for itching, ulcers.
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Warning

Poisonous. Produces “staggers” in livestock, hence the common name.

Use with medical supervision only
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Bibliography

Buy It! Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000

Buy It! Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023

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