Tough guys: Urban Weedz

My route today had one primary goal in mind: Picking up some tasty herbs and vegetable starts for my garden (although I didn't say no to a couple of fruit and a Virgil's black cherry cream soda for lunch).

Somewhere between our local co-op and the large natural grocer on 33rd Street, I spotted a rugged gang of plants clinging to a hard-scrabble life in a dry alley. I realized I knew them all: Bravely vanguarding the end of the group in this photo --- and getting stepped on meanwhile --- is Burdock, while just behind, Lemon Balm, Wild Mallow and Plantain crouch for shelter under the graffitied meter box. Just across the alley from them I found Yellow Dock, plus a few grasses.

Plants, I've discovered, are like people in that you get to know them after you've hung out with them long enough. From the moment I clapped eyes on them, the hood-tough plants in this alley weren't just weeds to me --- not any more.

Burdock, a powerhouse of a plant that can reach ten feet high and led to the invention of Velcro with its clever burr-hook technology, is one of our best cleansing herbs for liver, blood, lymph glands, skin, poisoning cases, and even cancer, as is Yellow Dock, which is also great for stimulating bile to detoxify the internal organs. Plaintain is soothing and healing for the skin and mucus membranes, giving relief for bites, stings and wounds. Wild Mallow or Cheeseweed, like its cultivated cousins, is also good for soothing throats and all sensitive bodily membranes. And Lemon Balm is a champ at both calming and uplifing you, improving the digestion while taking care of nervous issues like stress, anxiety and depression.

With all of these plants already in my garden, I left these particular specimens alone. Not just because they had been exposed to high traffic exhaust from busy Alberta Street, either. I figured these tough urban weedz, after rooting out a place for themselves in the concrete jungle, deserved to make a proud statement of their survival abilities and not suffer the added stress of relocation (which must make human moving seem fluffy in comparison). They're not the only ones of their kind; I've spotted each of these plants all over our city. Like our own species, they're adaptors and survivors.

Burdock, Lemon Balm, Yellow Dock, Mallow, Plaintain: Not just weeds! Get to know these plants and what they can do for you. Give the first a week to clear up those zits on your chin, while a single cup of the second just might make your day brighter, or that exam go just a bit easier. Coming to a 'hood near you.... if they aren't already there.