From Booklist
The United Plant Savers group is dedicated to the "green medicine of plants," a natural approach to the healing benefits of our flora. One result of their efforts is this wealth of essays focusing on conservation issues and the cultivation and usage of native medicinal species. Informative and instructional, the compendium identifies at-risk plants, and encourages sound practices by all individuals and businesses that utilize herbs. The greater part of the book is organized into alphabetical entries for plants, from American Ginseng to Yerba Santa, a shrubby, aromatic evergreen. Appendixes include facts about seaweeds, plant nursery listings, planting guides, and resources, adding up to an important contribution to the literature of herbalism. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Today's Books, February 8, 2001
Exceptional.


Light of Consciousness, Winter 2002
A ground-breaking book. A manual for personal and planetary health, an important book for city and country dwellers alike.


Barbara Ardinger, PanGaia: Earthwise Spirituality, Winter 2001-02
A must-have for all of us who say that we worship the ground we walk on.


Pearly Baker Best, Magical Blend's Natural Beauty & Health, Summer 2002
The book draws on the experience not only of its two editors but also many other respected herbalists.


Book Description
Planting the Future shows how land stewardship, habitat protection, and sustainable cultivation are of critical importance to ensure an abundant renewable supply of medicinal plants for future generations.


About the Author
A practicing herbalist with twenty-six years of experience, Rosemary Gladstar is the founder of United Plant Savers (UpS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving America's native medicinal plants, and cofounder of Sage Mountain Herbs, which offers a comprehensive herbal training program. She is also the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Herbal Healing for Women.

Pamela Hirsch, owner of Rowan Mountain Herbals, an herbal body-care business specializing in natural soaps, has worked with medicinal herbs for nearly a decade. Growing up in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, she was exposed to different healing modalities at an early age. She shares her hard-won herbal secrets for staying healthy on the road in The Traveler's Natural Medicine Kit.



Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Pages 11 & 12

North American Indigenous Medicinal Plants
For the benefit of the plant communities, wild animals, harvesters, farmers, consumers, manufacturers, retailers, and practitioners we offer this list of wild medicinal plants that we feel are currently most sensitive to the impact of human activities. Our intent is to assure the increasing abundance of the medicinal plants that are presently in decline due to expanding popularity and shrinking habitat and range. UpS is not asking for a moratorium on the use of these herbs. Rather, we are initiating programs designed to preserve these important wild medicinal plants.
We ask wildcrafters to consider the ecological impact of taking these herbs from the wild. Replanting in the wild, as well as careful stewarding of your collection areas is of tantamount importance if the trade of wildcrafting is to continue. Although the herb may be abundant in your locality, it has probably already disappeared from other areas. Wildcrafters are among those who have the best understanding of wild plants, and you can contribute greatly by providing seed and advising others on how to plant and grow these herbs.
We ask manufacturers and consumers to assist in the transition from wildcrafted sources to those that are organically grown. If there is demand for wild herbs, then we will continue to lose them. If there is demand for cultivated herbs, then we will create environmentally friendly jobs while saving the wild plants. Although it is an expensive proposition, the time is ripe to assure sustainability of the herbs we love.

At-Risk List
American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius)
Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa, syn. Cimicifuga racemosa)
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
Echinacea (Echinacea spp.)
Eyebright (Euphrasia spp.)
Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)
Helonias Root (False Unicorn) (Chamaelirium luteum)
Kava, Hawaiian Wild (Piper methysticum)
Lady’s Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium spp.)
Lomatium (Lomatium dissectum)
Osha (Ligusticum porteri, L. spp.)
Peyote (Lophophora williamsii)
Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra)
Sundew (Drosera spp.)
Trillium (Beth Root) (Trillium spp.)
True Unicorn (Aletris farinosa)
Venus’s-Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)
Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria)
Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa, D. spp.)

To-Watch List
Arnica (Arnica spp.)
Calamus Root (Acorus calamus)
Cascara Sagrada (Rhamnus purshiana)
Chaparro (Castela emoryi)
Elephant Tree (Bursera microphylla)
Gentian (Gentiana spp.)
Goldthread (Coptis spp.)
Lobelia (Lobelia spp.)
Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pendatum)
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
Oregon Grape (Mahonia spp.)
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
Pink Root (Spigelia marilandica)
Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata)
Pleurisy Root (Butterfly Weed) (Asclepias tuberosa)
Spikenard (Aralia racemosa, A.californica)
Stillingia (Queen’s Delight) (Stillingia sylvatica)
Stoneroot (Collinsonia canadensis)
Stream Orchid (Epipactis gigantea)
Turkey Corn (Dicentra canadensis)
White Sage (Salvia apiana)
Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria)
Yerba Mansa (Anemopsis californica)
Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californica)

Note: Read “spp.” as “all North American species in the genus.” We are using this category when:
(1) all North American members of the genus fit the “at risk” definition or
(2) there is reason to believe that either through inability to locate the commonly used species, or through misidentification, or through intentional collection, species besides the commonly used species in the genus might also be at risk. We see this situation clearly with the harvest of any trillium species to be sold as “bethroot,” or in the harvest of any echinacea species to be sold as “E. angustifolia.”

FROM THE CRITICS

PanGaia: Earthwise Spirituality

A must-have for all of us who say that we worship the ground we walk on.

Today's Books

Exceptional.

Pearly Baker Best

The book draws on the experience not only of its two editors but also many other respected herbalists from the organization United Plant Savers...

Booknews

North American native plants from ginseng to wild yam are being loved to extinction by the booming medicinal herb market, as 40 advocates explain. This book includes color photos, data on at-risk herbs and their uses, and conservation resources. Gladstar founded United Plant Savers and the California School of Herbal Studies. Hirsch owns an herbal body care business. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Internet Book Watch