Last weekend, my son had his first run-in with stinging nettle.
I heard “Dad! Dad! Dad!” and he then came running to me with tears in his eyes, not knowing what was happening to him as welts popped up on his legs and he began to itch. If you’ve never experienced nettle, the first time is unexpected and shocking.
Rather than racing back to the cabin to get him into the shower and cleaned up with soap and water, I told him and his siblings that we were sticking it out and continuing to play and explore in the wilds.
Does that mean I’m a bad father?
Nope.
It means that I know Mother Nature provides.
I quickly found some jewelweed, smashed the stalks of the plant and spread the watery juices all over where the nettle’s hairs were bothering him. Within minutes, the pain and itch were gone. Within the hour, the welts completely disappeared.
Jewelweed is a magical plant — the first aid of the forest — that you need to familiarize yourself with. Now, the plant is just sprouting or developing in cool, shaded woods or around ponds and streams, showing its blue-green leaves with a whitish underside and its watery, rather weak stems. Over the next couple of weeks, it will quickly grow to two to four feet in height. During July and August, those plants will sport their tell-tale flowers (at which time you can memorize what the leaves look like). The flowers are unmistakable — brilliant orange, shaped like a bugle or cornucopia. A closer examination will show reddish-brown speckles all over them.
If you squeeze the flower at the height of its ripeness, its seeds will explode out of it. The small green seeds can fly up to five feet, courtesy of the built-in coils or springs. When that happens, you can even hear a loud “snap” come from the flower. That explosive nature is why the jewelweed goes by another name, touch-me-not. Despite that moniker, it’s not dangerous and the trick is something neat to show young kids.
The plant gets the name jewelweed because of its somewhat waterproof leaves. They have on them minute hairs that trap air and cause water to bead up — looking like jewels.
You might also consider the plant to be a jewel because of its magical powers.
Beyond offering relief from nettles, it is widely known to be a cure for poison ivy. One can take its succulent stems and crush them, using the watery juices to wash their hands and legs after being exposed to poison ivy. Somehow, those juices will neutralize the ivy’s poison (known as urushiol). This has to be done relatively immediately, within a few hours of being exposed to the plants.
Urushiol can hold for a long time — even months — on tents, tarps, toys, and your pets’ fur, so you can use crushed touch-me-not to wash those items to make sure they are good for handling once again by your family.
Jewelweed juice can be used to calm itching that occurs from mosquito bites. It has also been used to treat razor burn, acne, and heat rash. It is also one of the best natural remedies for Athlete’s Foot, as it at once calms the troublesome itch and kills the fungus that causes it. It has that same effect in the fight against dandruff.
Its powers don’t end there. It can tame an itch elsewhere on your body. In the 1800s, some folks used it to fight hemorrhoids, making an ointment by boiling the plant with pig lard. Jewelweed contains 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, an anti-inflammatory agent and fungicide. It’s the same substance that is an active ingredient in Preparation H.
Jewelweed really is a jewel. With some plants, their curative powers are more anecdotal and mythical than they are realistic and effective. That’s not the case with this one, which has scientifically-proven abilities.
Nature heals … in many ways.