Scientific Name: (Vernonia fasciculata, Composite Family)
Common Name: Common Ironweed
Medicinal Part: The Root primarily (notations of seed and flower uses – I may make a bitters vinegar of seed/flower next year to test.)
Description: This is an indigenous perennial, coarse, purplish-green weed with a stem from three to ten feet high. The leaves are from four to eight inches long, one or two broad, lanceolate, tapering to each end. Corolla is showy and dark purple.
This is a very common plant to the Western states, growing in woods and prairies, and along rivers and streams flowering from July to September. The root is bitter and imparts it virtue in water and alcohol.
Properties and Uses: It is a bitter tonic. In powder and decoction in indicated uses from all bitters applications to passing kidney stones to headaches.
Dose: Steep a teaspoonful of the root into a cup of boiling water. Drink cold 1-2 cupfuls a day a large mouthful at a time. Of the tincture, 1/2 to 1 full fl. dr.