Horseweed

Scientific Names

Horseweed

  • Conyza canadensis L.
  • Erigeron candensis L.
  • Composite family

Common Names

  • Bitterweed
  • Blood staunch
  • Butterweed
  • Canada fleabane
  • Colt’s tail
  • Cow’s tail
  • Fleabane
  • Mare’s tail
  • Pride weed
  • Scabious

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Parts Usually Used

Leaves or plant

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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Horseweed is a native North American annual plant with stiff, erect, branched and leafy stems, 1-7 feet tall. The grooved, bristly, and hairy stem bears alternate, entire or serrate leaves that are oblanceo-late and petioled near the bottom of the plant, narrow and sessile near the top. Numerous tiny (to 1/4 inch), green and white flower heads appear in panicled terminal clusters from June to November. Each flower head has many greenish white ray florets which do not spread and many yellow disk florets.

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Where Found

Found in North and South America and Europe. Generally inhabits waste places, roadsides, fields, and meadows all over North America except the extreme northern parts.

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Medicinal Properties

Astringent, diuretic, styptic, tonic

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Uses

Horseweed is particularly suitable for treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, internal hemorrhage, and hemorrhoids. Native Americans boiled the root to make a tea for menstrual irregularities. It has also been recommended for bladder problems and rheumatism. Excellent for cholera, colon trouble, and summer complaint. Good for tuberculosis, kidney gravel, diabetes, hemorrhages of the stomach, nosebleeds, fevers, bronchitis, coughs, cystitis, and dropsy.

Africans used it for eczema and ringworm.

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Formulas or Dosages

The whole plant in flower, dried in bunches.

Infusion: steep 1 level tsp. leaves or plant in 1 cup water for 30 minutes. Take 1-2 cups a day.

Enema: steep 1 tsp. leaves or plant in 1 qt. boiling water for 20 minutes. Use hot (110-112 degrees F.).
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Warning

May cause contact dermatitis.

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Bibliography

Buy It! Back to Eden, by Jethro Kloss; Back to Eden Publishing Co., Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994

Buy It! The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

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

Buy It! Indian Herbalogy of North America, by Alma R. Hutchens, Shambala Publications, Inc., Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973

Buy It! How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts, by Frances Densmore, Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974

Buy It! An Instant Guide to Medicinal Plants, by Pamela Forey and Ruth Lindsay, Crescent Books (January 27, 1992).

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