Herbs That Heal a full herb resource site, herbal medicine healing, including how to make home
remedies, purchasing herbal remedies and which heals help which ailments. Don't forget to visit our on staff
herbologist and author of Healing Herbs For The Mind Body and Soul.
- Balm
Balm is a perennial plant native to the Mediterranean and various areas of the USA. It is also widely cultivated as a culinary herb. Balm grows to 3 feet producing delicious lemon scented, teethed leaves. The clusters of small, two lipped flowers vary in color from pale yellow to rose or blue white in color, blooming from July through August.
- Barberry
Barberry is a 3 - 8 foot deciduous shrub native to North America. The inside of the root is yellow and the bark has a bitter taste. The leaves are oval in shape with a soft bristly point. The small yellow flowers bloom from April through June and hang from the branches in clusters. The bright red berries ripen during August and September.
- Basil
Basil is an annual plant native to the tropics and sub-tropics. It is also widely cultivated. Basil is found in many forms, colors, and fragrances. The leaves are large and puckered similar to a clove. The green or purple foliage produces white or pink flowers. The entire plant has a licorice aroma to it.
- Bean
All varieties of bean are widely cultivated. The bean plant is a vine that grabs onto whatever it can, producing flowers that bloom from June through August, resulting in the bean pod.
- Bearberry
Bearberry is a small evergreen shrub native to the northern United States, and Europe. The dark rusty-brown bark is covered with oval, leathery leaves. The hanging clusters of white or pink flowers produce a bright, small, red berry.
- Bistort
Bistort is a perennial native to Europe and Asia. This hardy plant thrives at higher elevations. The thick, twisted, rootstock grows up to 3 ft long, producing bluish green leaves and red flowers that bloom from May through August
- Bittersweet
Bittersweet is a perennial, woody vine found in moist areas. This vine grows up to 10 feet, producing purplish leaves and purple star shaped flowers that bloom from May through August, then producing a scarlet red, bitter berry.
- Blackberry
The Blackberry is a perennial plant native to the United States and Canada. It is also widely cultivated elsewhere. The long tangled thorny stems with lavish foliage produce five petal white flowers that bloom from June through September, then producing a juicy purplish blue-black berry, thus its name Blackberry.
- Black Cohosh
Black Cohosh is a perennial that native to North America. It thrives in the mountanous woody areas. The knotty rootstock grows up to 9 feet tall producing small white flowers that bloom from May through August.
- Black Haw
Black Haw is a deciduous spreading shrub that grows up to 13 feet tall. The rusty-brown bark produces maple like leaves that turn purple in the fall. The flat heads of creamy scented flowers bloom from May through June. In the fall the shrub is filled with red berries.
- Black Mustard
Black Mustard is a hardy annual plant native to North America. It grows from 3 - 8 feet, with feathery leaves and yellow flowers that bloom July through August, then producing long dark pods of seeds.
- Bladderwack
Bladderwrack has a strong foul odor when fresh, but baking it deodorizes it. Do not use kelp collected close to shore as it may be contaminated by industrial pollutants. Kelp is best bought commercially.
- Blessed Thistle
Blessed Thistle is an annual plant native to Europe, Asia, and some areas in the United States. It is also widely cultivated. The red, slender stem of the Blessed Thistle grows about 2 feet high, producing many branches. It
- Blue Cohosh
Blue Cohosh is a perennial plant native to North America. It grows in abundance near streams, swamps, and wetlands. The blue-purple stem produces a single large leaf, but in the summer it produces 3 branches with 3 compound leaves on each and a dark blue pea size fruit.
- Blue Flag
Blue Flag is native to North America and Europe in the wetlands. It has a stout stem and long narrow leaves, with each stem having 2 to 3 large bluish or purplish flowers that bloom from March through April.
- Borage
Borage is a hardy annual plant that is widely cultivated and native to Southern Europe. It grows to 2 feet, producing large wrinkled, fuzzy leaves and droopy bluish or purplish star shaped flowers that bloom from June through August.
- Buchu
Buchu is a small shrub native to South Africa. It grows 2 to 5 feet tall, producing toothed leaves and 5 petal white to pink flowers. The oval fruit appears in the fall.
- Buckthorn
Buckthorn is a shrub that grows to 25 feet,. producing upt o 6 green flowers per stem. The flower clusters then produce a 3 seeded green berry, that turns red to purplish black when ripe.
- Burdock
Burdock is a biennial plant native to the Northern United States and Europe, found growing in abundance almost anywhere. The long, fleshy root is gray-brown to black outside and whitish inside.
