{"id":788,"date":"2007-01-06T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-06T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=788"},"modified":"2007-01-06T16:32:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-06T16:32:00","slug":"goatheads-are-good-for-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=788","title":{"rendered":"Goatheads are good for something?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every gardening writer likes to write about reading seed catalogs as the midwinter snow falls. <\/p>\n

So I won’t do that. I will just mention that I was perusing the new Richter’s<\/a> catalog as ten inches of fresh powder<\/strike>–well, OK, it is more than a cliche. It happens.<\/p>\n

“What the hell,” I said. “They’re selling goatheads<\/b>!” Also called puncturevine. Tribulus terrestis<\/i>. Nasty, invasive, spreading Eurasian weeds whose multi-pointed seed capsules can bring a dog to a whimpering standstill, not to mention being hard on bicycle inner tubes.<\/p>\n

M.’s response was to pass me a copy of Charles W. Kane’s Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest<\/em><\/a>, which she had just brought home from the Pueblo library. (We may have to buy it.) She held it open to the section on puncturevine.<\/p>\n

It turns out to be helpful for moderate hypertension, to increase male libido (herbal Viagra?), and to contain some natural steroids. <\/p>\n

Many men using the plant often notice a related sense of increased physical strength and will — a good tonic for older men and the metrosexual alike.<\/em><\/p>\n

I consider Michael Moore<\/a> (not the filmmaker) to be one of the best Southwestern herbalists.<\/p>\n

He contributed the foreword, noting, “Charles<\/a> has written an impeccable book.”<\/p>\n

Here is Kane’s border-country spin on the usual herbalists’ advice on wildcrafting–gathering plants in the wild:<\/p>\n

Collect away from roadsides, inner city areas, industrial sites, agricultural areas, and heavily traveled foot trails — explaining yourself to every busy-body hiker gets to be tiresome, although visibly packin’ heat usually limits conversation to furtive glances.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although a short drive takes us to eastern Fremont County, Colorado, which is sort of the last outlier of the Chihuahuan Desert, a lot of Kane’s plants are hundreds of miles away. But about half of them are here.<\/p>\n

Methods of preparation are clearly described, and the plants are illustrated with color photos and Frank Rose’s meticulous botanical paintings.<\/p>\n

If you live in the Southwest and you like to take care of some minor ills yourself or learn some herbal first aid, you should have it.<\/p>\n

(Cross-posted to Nature Blog<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every gardening writer likes to write about reading seed catalogs as the midwinter snow falls. So I won’t do that. I will just mention that I was perusing the new Richter’s catalog as ten inches of fresh powder–well, OK, it is more than a cliche. It happens. “What the hell,” I said. “They’re selling goatheads!” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-herbalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-cI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6809,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6809","url_meta":{"origin":788,"position":0},"title":"“Good Witches” at the Alchemical Bar","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In Brooklyn, says the New York Times, \"real-life good witches\" are selling herbal cocktails and \"celebrating all things magical.\" Ms. Ayales\u2019s best-selling formulas are Love Handles, a tonic said to help blast fat with ginger, Himalayan pink salt, green coffee bean and a rain forest tree berry called cha de\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"herbalism\"","block_context":{"text":"herbalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=herbalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4601,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4601","url_meta":{"origin":788,"position":1},"title":"Three Related Blog Posts","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"From Deborah Castellano, who also blogs at Charmed, I'm Sure: \"The Art of Career Occultism.\"' Let me ask you, how do you see a career occultist? \u00a0Do you see her as someone who gets up and does sun\u00a0salutations, writing in her dream diary over herbal tea and an organic scone,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=555","url_meta":{"origin":788,"position":2},"title":"Scarborough FairListening to the Mediaeval\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Scarborough FairListening to the Mediaeval Baebes' short version of \"Scarborough Fair\" on Mirabilis, I got to thinking about the different lyrics of this old song.The version available at this site make it clear that the singer is asking his lover to perform a series of impossible tasks, for example, to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":899,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=899","url_meta":{"origin":788,"position":3},"title":"The Street of the Idol-Makers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Monday I drove to Denver for the last day of the International New Age Trade Show (West) at the Merchandise Mart, partly to see friends and also to check out the Books, New Age and World Music, CD's and DVD's, Aromatherapy Bath and Body Preparations, Apparel, Candles, Crystals, Tarots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6631,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6631","url_meta":{"origin":788,"position":4},"title":"Passing of Margot Adler\u2014Will NPR Admit She was Wiccan?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you not on Facebook, this was the announcement of Margot Adler's passing, posted by her son, Alex. Old friends, long time fans, today at 4am Margot breathed easily for the first time in two weeks. Later today, at 10:30am she was pronounced deceased. Her condition had been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6604,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6604","url_meta":{"origin":788,"position":5},"title":"“Choose How Cute or Evil She Should Be”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The sexy witch. The evil witch. The cute witch. What accessories should she wear? What animal is her familiar? And where did she come from? When I ran across this website (another update of the old paper doll), I thought of two things right away. One was a book co-authored\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"witchcraft\"","block_context":{"text":"witchcraft","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=witchcraft"},"img":{"alt_text":"historical witch creator","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/historical-witch-creator.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}