Some say that plants come into your life when you are in need of them, and I’ve found this to be true. This phenomenon has happened to me on multiple occasions, but never so pronounced as it did with goldenrod.
I grew up seeing goldenrod bloom prolifically every year, but never really saw her. I first noticed it at a time when I really needed it - I was just starting herbalism classes and was becoming much more interested in foraging. I was also grappling with incredibly frequent UTIs. For the first time, I noticed how prolific she was and was drawn to her bright, sunny disposition. I identified and learned about her and realized that she could be an incredible ally to me. Goldenrod has been my good friend ever since.
Before I go on, I need to defend goldenrod from the unjust slander that is so widely spread about her. Many people, and maybe even you who are reading this, think that goldenrod is a main culprit of their autumn seasonal allergies. This is not true. Goldenrod’s pollen is too heavy to be carried on the air (she is pollinated by insects). In fact, goldenrod is a very important late season food source to help bees get ready for winter. The real culprit of your allergies is most likely ragweed.
Goldenrod looks like it would be full of pollen - it’s tall, and bright yellow, with tons of small flowers, and prolific and impossible to miss. Ragweed is green, (even the flower), and is shorter and smaller, blending into all the other greenery while goldenrod stands out. It’s no wonder that goldenrod gets blamed, but she doesn’t deserve it.
Goldenrod is tall, bright yellow, prolific, and is a resilient native plant that is holding her own against all the invasives while other native plants get out competed. She is incredibly adaptable and can be found everywhere across North America. Remember the doctrine of signatures? We discussed it when we learned about dandelion. Before reading further, take a minute and think about how you think goldenrod can help you. What clues do the qualities described above give?
All of these gifts that goldenrod processes, she shares with us.
She’s bright and sunny - good at making us feel uplifted, centered, and joyful.
She’s resilient and thrives in lots of different environments - she helps us to do the same.
She’s an important nectar source for pollinators - she’s a giver, very important to her environment, and wants to help you too.
She carries the brightness of the early autumn sun into the cold winter, and shares that energy with us.
Since goldenrod is so outwardly bright and sunny, it’s no surprise that she is warming, drying, and tonifying to the body. Goldenrod exerts gentle astringent action that works on all our mucous membranes, helping to dry up drippy, runny noses, weepy eyes, and phlegm in the lungs. This doesn’t just work in the respiratory system and sinuses - goldenrod exerts this action all the way down, tightening up laxity in the digestive tract. Furthermore, she helps stabilize mast cells, reducing the histamine load. This means that not only is goldenrod not a culprit for seasonal allergies, she can actually help fight them.
Goldenrod contains antimicrobial volatile oils, which are processed by the kidneys and therefore excreted via the urinary system. This means that the antimicrobial qualities of goldenrod get directly into your urinary tract and bladder, making goldenrod an important ally when you have a UTI. On top of that, goldenrod is gently diuretic, helping you flush those antimicrobials through. It doesn’t stop at the urinary tract - goldenrod has an affinity for the entire pelvic floor, reducing inflammation and tonifying swollen and lax tissue throughout.
Goldenrod has seven times more antioxidants than green tea, and is well known amongst herbalists to be an exhilarant - meaning, it helps uplift you. Goldenrod is a friend to turn to when you need some extra motivation to keep on going. As my teachers often say, “we haven’t invented the microscope that can see emotions yet,” so we don’t have a western science study to link to that explains that. However, just because we can’t explain it doesn’t mean it’s not real. As I like to harp on - historical relationships with plants that are thousands of years old, with countless people agreeing that they experience this effect, counts as evidence. Now, the government agrees with that assessment too.
Parts used: Flowers
Notable compounds: caffeic & chlorogenic acids, catechins, quercetin, kaempferol,
astragalin, inulin, tannins
Energetics: Warm, dry, tonifying
Actions: astringent, diuretic, urinary antiseptic, antilithic, antispasmodic,
antiinflammatory, decongestant, carminative, vulnerary, analgesic
Origin: North America
Medicinal parts: flowers and leaves
Preparation suggestions: Tea (my go-to), tincture, infused in oil
Notes and cautions: Usually quite safe, but as a member of the aster family, some people are allergic. Proceed slowly if you are working with goldenrod for the first time (and remember that if you think you’re allergic, you might actually be confusing it with ragweed!)
Harvest: snip off the flowerhead with some leaves mixed in. You want mostly flowers and a few leaves.
This is the sixth Herb of the Month dispatch of The Blueberry Patch. Every month I’ll feature a seasonally appropriate plant and wax poetic about it. Whether you are a serious herbal student or you just want to casually learn about plants, I encourage you to incorporate an Herb of the Month practice into your life. If it’s the herb I profile, great, but if you feel drawn towards some other plant, then by all means, follow that. The practice of selecting an herb of the month is a popular learning tool in herbal schools. If you decide to do this practice, then try consuming your selected herb every day of the month, in different ways. Make tea, decoctions, long overnight infusions, tinctures, mineral infusions, incorporate it into your food, and do all of this with the different edible parts of the plant. When it comes to incorporating a new plant into your life, the best knowledge of how it's going to make you feel will come from your own observations. We’re all different and we won’t all react the same way to plants - knowing what an herb can do for you ultimately has to come from your own experimentation and lived experience.