Usnea: from fairy potions to womb healing - part 1.

The Beginning...

It was drizzling and foggy, and I was walking in the woods with a friend, who I have known since birth. Both of us must have been 9 years old, and were focused on the important task of gathering ingredients to make a shrinking potion. You see, we knew that we were fairies, and we understood that in this world we were simply the wrong size, so it was our constant mission to create a blend that would restore us to our true form and allow us to return home to a world of magic.

On this particular day, perhaps because of the fragrance released with the rain, we were drawn to the mosses.We gathered vibrant clumps from the forest floor, and plucked tufts of Usnea from the Ponderosa bark. I remember holding the Usnea to my nose and delighting in its sharp yet mulchy smell, its damp and springy texture between my fingers. When we got home, we emptied our pockets into a pot on the stove and set it to boil. When it was sufficiently hot, we decided to blend it. It exploded all over the kitchen. I can still see gooey, greenish brown splatter all over the walls, and my friend’s father on a step-stool cleaning it from the ceiling! 

I did not consciously interact with Usnea again until my early 20s, when the instructor of my introductory herbalism course taught us how to make a healing salve with Usnea and Calendula. My memory of the potion rushed back, and I asked the instructor to tell me more about Usnea. He explained that the plant has a “hidden marriage between a fungus and an algae,” and thus, according to the Doctrine of Signatures, it helps to bring hidden issues to the surface and resolve them! What he said resonated with me, so the next day I went into the mountains and collected Usnea.

That night the lichen came to me in a dream and communicated that for the medicine to be most potent, I should collect the plant in the rain. Shortly thereafter, it did rain, so I went back into the ponderosa hills. I almost did not recognize Usnea. With the rain, she came to life! Usually, the plant has the texture of rough, dehydrated rice noodles; however, because of the humidity, the Usnea expanded, became soft, flexible, and detailed. I could clearly see disks with little filaments around the edges at the end of each miniature hairy vine. I fell in love! 

At home, as I was cooking the Usnea to extract the usnic acid before adding alcohol to make a tincture, I found myself marveling over the potion my friend and I made so many years ago. We knew nothing about the plant, yet somehow, intuitively, we did exactly what we “should” to activate Usnea’s medicinal properties: we were called to the Usnea under the rain, and we understood that to make the potion powerful, we had to heat it! I am positive that this did not happen by chance, rather, Usnea communicated  how to make the most potent extraction. Perhaps if we had only tasted a bit of the potion, we would have shrunk down to our true size!

The Powers and Properties of Usenea

To properly get to know this plant, we must delve into its history and examine the chemical constituents held within the plant.

Usnea, like many lichens, came to be out of a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, and an algae. The fungus is responsible for providing the structure to this plant, while the algae allows it to photosynthesize. These two beings entered a symbiotic relationship over millennia to create Usnea as we know it. This relationship--the dynamic of two organisms uniting to create one plant--ultimately plays a big role in Usnea's medicinal properties.

On the level of its constituents, the fungus structure of the plant allows the algae to give Usnea its sage blue/green color, and generate Usnic Acid, the compound that gives Unsea its powerful antimicrobial, antibacterial properties. Additionally, Usnea contains mucilage, vitamin c, and sterols.

Usnic Acid can be regarded as nature's raw form of penicillin. Usnea acts as an antibiotic, but without eliminating all of the good microbiome in our bodies, and often, it can offer healing when antibiotics fail. Because of Usnea's generous properties, it has a profound affinity for the respiratory system, circulatory system, the skin, wounds, and infections, and as a potent antiviral. Usnea can be used to support the healing of strep, staph, GBS, and viruses such as Epstein-Barr, Herpes, and HPV.

Usnea through the lens of the Doctrine of Signatures, illustrated by Kalila, years ago

Usnea and the Doctrine of Signatures

Now, we must look at Usnea through the lens of the Doctrine of Signatures. You may be asking yourself, "what is this doctrine of signatures, of which you speak?" Well, to put it simply, the Doctrine of Signatures is the tenant that has guided herbalism from the beginning of humanity: plants communicate through their form. Physical attributes such as color, shape, taste, appearance, and sensory effects allow us to "read" their medicinal properties.

If we were to apply this principle to Usnea, we will find that there are many facets to decipher!

First and foremost, Usnea acts as the lungs of the forest! Usnea purifies the mountain air, and is only found in clean, healthy forests. Usnea's form, with small branches with little hairs and disks, could easily be imagined to look like the little alveoli in our lungs. It's little arms could also could be seen as the cillia in our intestines, or the vessels of our circulatory system. Usnea also grows upon other plants: it is most often found clinging to the bark of trees in the high mountains. As such, we might say that it innately has the ability to tackle the "things clinging to us..." such as infections, viruses, etc. We could go on and on and on reading into Usnea's powers, but the final one I will delve into, is the symbiotic relationship between the fungus and the algae. Just as the symbiotic relationship of the two aspects of this plant cannot been seen by the naked eye, Usnea works within the body and the spirit to find the hidden elements of malaise. We find that Usnea offers itself as a medicine that has the power to tackle the "unseen or mysterious" elements of an imbalance or dis-ease.

Working With Usena

To learn more about how to work with Usnea, read on to part two of this blog! We will discuss my own healing story with Usnea, and also delve into the best ways of making Usnea tincture, and how to harvest responsibly!

Thanks for taking the time to learn about Usnea.

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References:

Apelian, Nicole, and Claude Davis. The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies: The Healing Power of Plants. Global Brother SRL, 2024.

Ruiz, Anna Maria. “Narratives Details.” The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium, NYBG Logo Steere Herbarium, 17 Apr. 2019, sweetgum.nybg.org/science/the-hand-lens/explore/narratives-details/?irn=7426.

Wood, Matthew. Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to New World Medicinal Plants. II, North Atlantic Books, 2011.