Hydrangea

Parts Usually Used

Root, leaves

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Hydrangea is a native North American shrub; the stems, growing from 3-10 feet high, are covered with thin layers of different-colored bark. The opposite, ovate, serrate leaves have hairy veins on the underside when mature. Rounded or globular clusters of small, creamy-white flowers appear during June and July. The flowerheads are surrounded by sterile, papery, flower-like structures that attract bees and other pollinators to the tiny, inconspicuous fertile blooms.

Where Found

Grows on dry slopes, in shady woods, and on streambanks from New York to Iowa, northern Florida, Oklahoma to Indiana, Ohio, and Louisiana.

Medicinal Properties

Antilithis, diuretic

Biochemical Information

Two resins, gum, starch, sugar, albumen, soda, lime potassa, magnesia, sulphuric and phosphoric acids, a protosalt of iron and a glucoside, hydrangin

Legends, Myths and Stories

The name “Seven Barks” is applied to the hydrangea due to the seven separate layers of different colored bark. There are 23 species of H. arborenscens, or wild hydrangea. The flowers are colored, depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the soil, mostly white, often tinged with pink, blue, or purple, and in a few are entirely colored. The root bark was formerly marketed under the name “Gravel Root”, referring to its use for kidney stones.

Making hydrangeas blue: Hydrangeas are often made to produce blue flowers by adding aluminum sulphate to the soil at the rate of 1/2 lb. to 5 gallons of water at weekly intervals. After 2 or 3 applications, it also seems to help to apply 4 oz. of ferrous sulphate per 5 gallons off water for a few weeks. This treatment is continued as long as it seems necessary to make and keep the soil acid.

Making hydrangeas pink: Hydrangeas are often made to produce various shades of pink flowers if they are not grown in acid soil. A neutral or slightly alkaline soil will give the results desired. 2. The addition of the lime is best affected by lifting the hydrangea in fall, shaking the roots free of as much soil as is safely possible and then mixing the lime thoroughly with the soil before planting again.

To be certain of the amount of lime needed to bring the soil to the required pH figure, have the soil tested.

Uses

Historically, herbalists used the root as a mild diuretic and believed it helped prevent and expel gravel, gallbladder stones, and kidney stones. Traditional practitioners also recommended it for chronic rheumatism, backache, scurvy, dropsy, and mucosal irritation in the elderly. Cherokee traditions utilized the herb for urinary retention and stones. In homeopathic practice, it was employed for bronchitis, urinary incontinence, and prostate complaints.

Folk traditions also noted its use for chronic non-specific urethritis, while some accounts recorded a laxative effect. Externally, the scraped bark was traditionally applied as a poultice to wounds, burns, sprains, and sore muscles, while the bark was historically chewed for stomach and heart complaints.

How Sold

Capsules

Bibliography

, Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book) , edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. , 1974