St. John’s wort
I believe that certain plants will show up in our lives when we need them most, whether in the form of herbal medicine or spiritual healing, or both. St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) is one that has shown up for me, offering medicine in the form of color. This plant is considered invasive here in Montana yet as soon as I started hearing the rumblings around my neighborhood about this “pesky” plant and how we had to get rid of it, my intuition told me there was more to it. Considering it's known to alleviate anxiety and depression, something I have struggled with most of my life, I already felt drawn to it.
Making a plant a part of our lives whether in the form of medicine, food or color is a way to understand it on a deeper level and forge a reciprocal relationship. I have found that working with plants–especially wild plants–encourages me to slow down and acknowledge the plant and the interconnectedness of its surrounding ecosystem. When considering invasive plants, it’s an opportunity to go beyond dualistic thinking of simply “good” or “bad” and take the time to develop our own understanding.
Over the years through research and my own observations I continue to learn about the intricacies of this plant—how it might be beneficial and how it might need tending to. I have noticed that it spreads faster in areas that have been heavily grazed, or areas of disturbance, yet seems to establish without taking over in healthier forested areas. This makes me wonder if there is an opportunity for it to naturalize in some cases, especially considering it’s an important nectar source for pollinators. While toxic to livestock, I have not noticed any of the wild animals eating it. So, unless it’s taking over and creating a monoculture it seems benign if not beneficial in some contexts. The main concern in our area is that many people hay their fields at the end of the summer. If the intended use of the land is for grazing or feeding livestock, the plant's toxicity presents a problem. So while the plant may be beneficial to me, I also have to consider the cultural carrying capacity of the plant and the needs of my neighbors. So far, I have been able to tend to the plant on our plot of land without noticing an alarming rate of spreading. However, in the canyon where we live, there are other areas where it’s spreading rapidly. This has led me to the idea of gathering a group of artists and herbalists to clear the plant every year, in an effort to celebrate and utilize the plant while also calming the nerves of neighbors with their chemical herbicides at the ready.
If we take the time to listen and learn from the plants, we can understand more about the soil and the health of the land. While it’s true that invasive species can crowd out native species causing problems for local habitats, they can also be beneficial to the soil and land health if managed in a holistic way. In her book, Beyond the War on Invasive Species, Tao Orion offers a bigger picture and suggests that: “Eradication-based species management tends to focus on the details of the organisms themselves, rather than looking at the ecosystem in which they are part. We should reverse this sequence in order to develop the most holistic understanding of the organism in question.” I found her book to be very illuminating. She offers a well researched deep dive into the problems around our narrow mindset about invasive species while offering practical solutions on how to restore ecosystems holistically.
I look forward to gathering around these ideas and so much more in our upcoming course, Local Color — exploring the art of natural dyes from seed to harvest.
“To think about restoration in a larger sense means placing ourselves firmly within the ecosystems where we live and assisting in the enhancement of our biological diversity on multiple scales.”