Chickweed: Green Star of Early Spring

Cool, green and juicy, chickweed forms densely woven mats in low, damp, often partially shaded areas. Often it can be found in the transition zone from wood’s edge to field, or, growing as a ground cover beneath taller plants, perhaps in in your garden. Noticing this natural tendency, I have, in fact, encouraged chickweed as a ground cover plant in my vegetable garden, with a miniature, tiered Permaculture food forest system of ground cover, understory ( lettuces , for example) and canopy ( brassicas).

Rich in minerals and vitamins, chickweed is loaded with B vitamins and trace minerals and makes a great addition to salad, as long as you harvest it before it flowers, and becomes large and coarse.

Chickweed is also a helpful vulnary herb (mild burns and wounds), a blood alkalizer and a diuretic which restores nutrients while relieving by the body of excess fluids. Masticated or mashed up a bit, it can be applied directly to a sore or cut. Chickens relish it: chick weed. When I kept hens, their pastures were amply populated with this green treat, and so the nutritive properties passed right into the eggs.

In skincare, chickweed excels at cooling and relieving dry, itchy skin, and some forms of acne & congestion. A fresh plant oil infusion, while tricky to accomplish, renders a green colored oil that even smells green. Used chopped and fresh in a healing facial mask, either with local honey, or paired with a few mashed strawberries, a bit of gentle pink or white clay powder, fresh aloe gel or yogurt, this is a great home treatment for blemish prone or acne scarred skin. Just keep your mask moist by spritzing with hydrosol, or even a little chickweed tea. Drink the rest of the tea for added benefits!

As far as chickweed’s healing signature,to me it speaks of helping us to navigate transitional periods, having to switch back and forth in our roles, perhaps movement from being in the solitude that introverts require, to spending quality time in community, with enjoyment. It is a very rhythmical plant, mainly stem, leaf, node and then teeny, starry white flowers as its botanical name, stellaria media, indicates.

The beautiful “surprise” appearance of chickweed in Spring, and its vernalizing (rejuvenating) effects upon the lymph and blood in our digestive, urinary and glandular secretions gesture to its capacities for helping us to balance and harmonize our polarities of outward and inward time, to be able to give (outward) without becoming depleted, and to take in (inward) without becoming overwhelmed. Further, it suggests developing an ability to feel nurtured in our hearts, even if our role is modest in life, and our work is unnoticed by most except those with eyes to see the small, quiet, yet powerfully beneficial plants, people and events in life.

Thank you, hope you enjoyed this little plant portrait!🌱

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