Medicinal Monday - Northern Red Oak

The Northern Red Oaktree is a native tree of  North America and grows in the eastern and central United States. In addition to its importance to the timber industry, many Native American Tribes`used this tree for a variety of ailments from chills and fever to sore chapped skin. This winter when walking the grounds of the Institute look for the distinctive red algae that grows in the inner crevices of the bark of Northern Oak trees.  Winter is the best time to spot this growth.

About the Northern Red Oak

Northern Red Oak Trees can live up to 400 years and can grow up to 141 feet tall and be 6.6 feet in diameter. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of this tree is its bark which features bark ridges that appear to have shiny stripes down the center.  This is the only oak tree with striping all the way down the trunk.  The leaves of this tree alternate and are seven to nine lobed and oblong-ovate to oblong and are five to ten inches long and four to six inches wide. Leaves emerge from pink buds in the spring and in the autumn they turn a bright red or brown. The acorns mature in 18 months and are green in color at first and mature into a nut-brown cup shape. The white kernel inside and the nut is very bitter.  Unlike many other oak tree species, the Northern Red Oak will not germinate without a minimum of three months' exposure to sub 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Medicinal Uses of the Red Oak
The Cherokee, Malecite, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, and Micmac use an infusion of bark and fur cones or bark and roots to treat chronic dysentery.  The bark has an astringent quality and is chewed to relieve sores in the mouth by the Cherokee and the inner bark was used to treat hoarseness and severe coughs by Delaware, and Oklahoma. The Chippewa have a ceremony using a compound decoction of the inner bark to treat heart trouble, and the Ojibwa use a decoction of the bark as a blood medicine to treat internal diseases as well as to treat heart trouble and as a respiratory aid. The Rappahannock make an infusion of the bark and drink it as a bitter-tasting beverage for beneficial health benefits.

Did You Know...

The Ashford Oak is a famous Northern Red Oak specimen tree located in Ashford Connecticut.

It is the most common species of oak in the northeastern US after the closely related pin oak.

Despite its bitterness, the kernel of the Northern Red Oak is eaten by deer, squirrels, and birds.

The Northern Red Oak is the State Tree of New Jersey and the provincial tree of Prince Edward Island.

It is one of the most important oaks for timber production in North America. 

Construction uses include flooring, veneer, interior trim, and furniture.

In Europe, northern red oak acorns, have become the food of several moth species.

Medicinal Monday...the Wonders of White Willow

Medicinal treatment using herbs has long been recognized as being an instinctive use of plants to help cure certain ailments. Many plants and herbs have a long history of culinary and medicinal use and many of the things we take today are based on herbal remedies. Aspirin, for example, was created from two plants, the white willow, and meadowsweet. Native Americans were quite knowledgeable about both plants.

About White Willow

The white willow (Salix alba) gets its name from the silvery-white underside of its leaves. It is native to Europe and Central Asia and was brought to the United States in the 1700s.  It is now naturalized in much of the country.  It is a majestic tree that is one of the first to leaf in the spring and one of the last trees to lose its leaves in the fall.  This is a relatively fast-growing tree that can reach up to 80 feet. The bark of the tree is furrowed and grayish in color with yellow-brown branches and twigs. The leaves are green on top with a white downy underside that gives this tree its name. The leaves turn a beautiful bronze color in the fall. This tree thrives in wetlands and is often found around ponds, streams, and lakes.

Medicinal and General Uses White Willow
White willow is a staple in medicinal treatment in many Native American communities. The Cherokee chewed white willow twigs for hoarseness.  They make tea from white willow bark and use it to treat pain, chills, and fever. They also made a preparation with white willow twigs, bark and pussy willows to treat a number of ailments including the treatment of fever. Sometimes the bark was ground into flour and bread was made. 

This tree is not only used medicinally. It also has several practical uses.  For example, the bark and twigs of the white willow tree are collected in the spring to make baskets.  The bark is easiest to remove this time of year because this is when the sap begins to flow.  Many containers and types of baskets in all sizes and shapes were made from this beautiful tree.

White Willow Tree in Autumn

Did You Know

White willows are the original source of salicylic acid, the precursor of aspirin.

White willow was used by the Chinese as a pain remedy since 500 B.C.

There are around 400 species of willow trees around the world.

The white willow tree is the largest species of willow trees that can grow over 80 feet tall.

Willow trees do not live long. A willow tree that is 70 years old is considered a very old tree.

Willow wood is used to make charcoal for drawing.

Willow wood is used to make baskets, brooms, boxes and cricket bats.

Medicinal Monday - Meadowsweet - More than a Pretty Flower

Using plants to treat ailments was highly valued by Native Americans across the country.  Today, people continue to use herbs with medicinal chemicals daily, most of the time not realizing the important role plants have played throughout history in helping to make us feel better. One of these plants used by Native Americans in several interesting ways is Meadowsweet.

About Meadowsweet
Meadowsweet (Filipendula rubra) is native to the northeastern and central United States, and southeastern Canada and belongs to the genus Rosaceae. This plant can grow up to eight feet high and has flowers that vary from white to deep pink. This plant prefers full sun and moist soil but can tolerate drier soil and partial shade as well. The leaves are fernlike and pointy and the sweet-smelling flowers blossom above the leaves. The numerous stamens give the flowers a fuzzy appearance when in bloom during the summer months. This plant has creeping roots so it spreads in an aggressive manner. Interestingly this plant is known for its airborne pollination that is only effective when the pollen is transferred from a different plant.  Bees help with the pollination process.

Medicinal Uses

Native Americans use the root of this plant in traditional medicine for treating heart problems. The root has very high tannin content making it useful as an astringent and for treating dysentery and bleeding. The Meskwaki used the root of Meadowsweet to make a compound that was used as a Love Potion.

Did You Know...

This plant is often called Queen of the Prairie.

This plant was first recorded in Massachusetts in 1875.

Filipendula rubra is considered endangered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, and New Jersey.

The deep pink flower of this plant was given an Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticulture Society, London's leading garden charity in 1993. 

A European member of this plant species, Filipendula vulgaris was used to flavor mead.

Salicylic acid used to make aspirin was first derived from the flowerhead of Filipendula ulmaria.

Many gardeners prize this plant as an ornamental addition to their gardens.

Celebrate National Indian Heritage Month @ Institute for American Indian Studies With Annawon Weeden

November is National Indian Heritage Month and many institutions nationwide join in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans. Each year, the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington Connecticut organizes special programs that highlight the rich cultural diversity and traditions of Native American communities through hands-on activities, arts and crafts, exhibits, music, and interactive programs.

This year’s highlight of National Indian Heritage Month at the Institute for American Indian Studies will be a highly interactive program by actor, activist, dancer, and Tribal mentor, Annawon Weeden. This special program will take place at 1 p.m. on November 16. Weeden is the founder of the First Light Foundation whose mission is to highlight the importance of preserving and celebrating diversity to reinforce the identity of each individual served.

Persuasive and powerful, authentic and imaginative, the stories and performance of Annawon Weeden reveal the unexpected ways Native Americans are embedded in our cultural identity as well as in our pop culture, sometimes accurately, and sometimes erroneously. Drawing on his Mashpee Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Pequot lineage, Weeden will explore the pre- European Tribal history of the People of the Dawn and share his personal experiences and insights. Through this interactive program, visitors will walk through time with Weeden and discover that Native American cultures are alive and well today, thriving and evolving across the United States. This program helps to foster a better understanding of Native American culture and traditions while dispelling some of the historical misinterpretations.

About The Institute for American Indian Studies

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have a 16^th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

About Annawon Weeden

Weeden is an enrolled member of his mother’s Mashpee Wampanoag tribal community. He currently works in the MPTN Cultural Resource Department as the Eastern Woodland song/dance instructor for his father’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribal community.

Growing up on the Narragansett reservation he was instructed on the traditional dances and customs of New England’s Native American Communities. As an adult, Weeden has developed a comprehensive knowledge of the vast diversity of native customs and traditions.

In October 2016, Congressman James Langevin took special notice of Weeden and decided to commemorate the life efforts of Weeden awarding him with a Congressional Honor as Culture Bearer for the entire New England Region.

Weeden’s knowledge of indigenous people and his ability to share his tribal culture is highly sought because it educational and inspiring.

Medincinal Monday - American Chestnut Tree the Redwoods of the East

The majestic American Chestnut Tree was once common throughout the forests of eastern North America, providing sweet, meaty chestnuts for humans and wildlife. American Chestnut trees once grew prolifically across the east coast with an estimated four billion trees blanketing the landscape from Maine to Florida.  These huge and ancient trees could grow up to 100 feet high and nine feet around. In addition to providing wood and shade, these trees also provided edible nuts.  Native Americans found many uses for this tree, which is rare in the wild today.

Winslow Homer - The Chestnut tree (1878)

About American Chestnut Tree

The American Chestnut tree is a large monoecious deciduous tree of the beech family and is native to eastern North America.  This hardwood tree grows rapidly and was one of the most common trees found in the northeast. As compared to its European cousins, the American Chestnut has larger and more widely spaced saw-teeth leaves and hairless twigs and branches. The American Chestnut is self-compatible and requires two trees for pollination.  It is also a prolific bearer of nuts.  There are usually three nuts enclosed in a spiny green burr that is lined in a tan velvet-like material.  The nuts develop during the summer and fall to the ground after the first frost.

A fungus imported from Asia infected chestnut trees, the first chestnut was thought to be infected in the 1890s and the first blight was reported in 1904 in New York's Botanical Garden. By 1910, panic spread as the population of chestnut trees continued to die.  This airborne fungus killed up to three billion American Chestnut trees. There are many efforts today to breed blight-resistant chestnut trees by the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation and the Canadian Chestnut Council.

William Henry Holmes 1846-1933

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

Native American communities on the East Coast used various parts of the American Chestnut to treat ailments such as whooping cough, heart conditions and chafed skin.  The Cherokee made a cough syrup from the leaves of the American Chestnut Tree, they also made an infusion of year-old leaves that were taken for heart trouble.  The Iroquois ground the wood of this tree into a powder to use on the chafed skin of babies and the meat of the nut was ground and combined with bear grease and used to treat hair. Another use was to mix the bark of this tree into dog food to treat worms. The Mohegan's made tea from the leaves to treat rheumatism and colds. An infusion of leaves was also used to treat whooping cough.

Chestnuts were roasted, ground into flour for cakes and bread and stewed into puddings and soups.

Chestnut Trees at Bolton, Lake George by Samuel Lancaster

Did You Know...

In colonial America, chestnut was a preferred species for log cabins, especially the bottom rot-prone foundation logs. Later posts, poles, flooring, and railroad ties were all made from chestnut lumber.

Chestnut ripening coincided with the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season, and turn-of-the-century newspaper articles often showed train cars overflowing with chestnuts rolling into major cities to be sold fresh or roasted. 


Chestnuts are unique among nuts because they are high in carbs, not oil.