Mouse Ear
Parts Usually Used
The entire plant
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Mouse ear is a small perennial plant; creeping, leafy runners propagate the plant so that it forms dense, weedy patches. The bristly, spatulate leaves, forming a basal rosette, are green on top and downy-white beneath. Solitary, although sometimes 2-4, yellow flowerheads rise from 4-15 inches above the ground on bristly scapes and are subtended by hairy, pointed bracts. Flowering time is from May to September.
Culpeper says that this herb stays green all winter. There is a plant called Virginia Mouse-ear (Cynoglossum morrisoni) that is a related annual plant similar in appearance to hound’s tongue but with white or light blue flowers. The root is an effective astringent.
Where Found
Grows in dry soil on lawns, fields, pastures, hilly areas, and waste places from Ontario south to New York and Pennsylvania, and west to Michigan and Ohio.
Medicinal Properties
Astringent, cholagogue, diuretic
Legends, Myths and Stories
Gnaphalium uliginosum is called also mouse ear. H. pilosella is said to be so powerful as to harden iron or steel; that if any edge or pointed tool is often quenched in the juice of this herb, it will cut all other iron, steel or stone very easily without turning the edge or point. Alchemists recommended the juice to congeal mercury, but all these fancies are not accepted today, of course.
Also, the claim that if this herb is given to a horse, the shoeing of the horse will not cause the horse pain.
Uses
Historically, herbalists used mouse ear to address diarrhea and employed it as a gargle for throat complaints. The powdered herb was traditionally snuffed into the nostrils to stem nosebleeds. Decoctions of the plant were administered for liver, spleen, and bladder stones, as well as for dropsy, jaundice, cankers, ulcers, sores, and as a general blood purifier. Prolonged use was reputed in some traditions to address cataracts, though this application was noted as disputed.
Externally, practitioners applied mouse ear to assist with wound healing.
Bibliography
American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) 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. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023