Fireweed and frontier medicine
By Chelsie Vandaveer
December 13, 2001
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Fireweed (Erechtites hieracifolia Rafinesque) [ee' reck ti' tes hire as' e fo' lee a] is not a pretty plant. In A Modern Herbal, Mrs. Grieve describes it as "this coarse, homely American weed..." Fireweed is a rank and rangy annual, individual plants will grow wherever soils have been disturbed.
On freshly burned soils, however, the plants grow in large stands achieving luxuriant growth. Fireweed can be found on most soil types from
Newfoundland to South America and on the west coast of the US. Strangely, it does not grow in Montana and Idaho or southward to Arizona and New Mexico.
The American natives applied fireweed to rashes, eczema, and wounds to staunch excessive bleeding. The plant has astringent properties which probably did aid in healing wet rashes like poison ivy. Poultices made of crushed leaves were applied to relieve pain from gout (inflammation of the joints due to build up of uric acid), rheumatism, and sciatica (pain along the sciatic nerve). Whether it has any analgesic properties has never been determined. Fireweed was also used to treat hemorrhoids and called by frontiersmen, pilewort.
Ecologically, fireweed is a pioneer plant, moving in after devastation. The brilliant green spikes appear out of place against the blackened earth. Fireweed protects the soil, holding the bare earth and ashes from wind and water erosion. It retains moisture and creates a humid atmosphere close to the earth. To the little things, seeds and small animals, it is a bandage where new life can get started. Fireweed is a foundation for secondary succession, the process that rebuilds the forests.
Although fireweed is an important plant to the recovery of an ecosystem, the plant is not eaten by herbivorous animals or insects. The plant contains terpenes which impart a bitter taste, have a pungent lingering odor, and cause severe nausea. With the first autumn frosts, the plants wilt and turn black appearing as if they had burned.
Virginia Technical has a series of photographs to aid in the identification of this "weed". To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/erehi.htm
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