Home » Plants & Animals » Historical Plants » Grasping the Nettle - Page 2

Grasping the Nettle - Page 2

© Audrey Stallsmith

Nettles are the only food for three types of butterflies: the Atalanta, Paphia, and the Urticae, and the favorite food of still another, the Io. Once wilted, the weeds are also good fodder for livestock. They will make your horse's coat--or your own mane--soft and glossy. I occasionally boil up a nettle tea to use as a final rinse after shampooing.

Dr. Andrew Weil prescribes freeze-dried nettle for hay fever and other allergies. This is nothing new, since the plant has long been used to treat asthma, colds, and other respiratory troubles. It is good for the kidneys and will stop internal or external bleeding. Some say that nettle will also kill worms and prevent TB. Jethro Kloss recommended it, along with sea wrack, for dieting--or "reducing," as it was called in his day.

Certain brave souls have also flayed themselves with fresh nettles to treat rheumatism. I don't think this is a good idea, however. I can testify from experience that a nettle rash will heat your skin all right, but it also hurts like crazy. The stings come from the plant's sharp little spines, each of which has a venom sac at its base filled with a type of ammonia. Fortunately, the pain usually dies away after a few minutes, unlike the "envy" or "slander" for which the nettle stands in the Language of Flowers.

Rosemary, dock, or sage leaves rubbed on the rash may help relieve it. And, strangely enough, the juice of the nettle plant is supposed to be an antidote to its own sting. Perhaps that explains an old saying which goes, "Tender-handed grasp the nettle, and it stings you for your pains. Grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains." You won't catch me trying it!

The saying does make sense, though, when you see it as an analogy for any painful problem. Try to ignore that problem, and you're liable to keep brushing smartingly up against it. Better to grasp and make something good out of it!

Note: Photo is by Robyn Klein, courtesy of Michael Moore and the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine at: http://chili.rt66.com/hrbmoore/HOMEPAGE/...

The copyright of the article Grasping the Nettle - Page 2 in Historical Plants is owned by . Permission to republish Grasping the Nettle - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.