Brenda Jones Captures Hummingbird Feeding, Pollinating Jewelweed

Cool Woman Poet, Betty Lies, is a dear friend, whose new collection of poetry, The Blue Laws, will be launched at the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m., upstairs by the fireplace.  Come join us to hear her remarkable work.  Her splendid poem on nature’s antidote to poison ivy awaits you below.  Meanwhile,…

Those savvy about global warming foresee dangers great and small, from the vanishing of our cherished coastlines to the increasing virulence of poison ivy.  Not only will this vine grow more rapidly, covering ever more ground and treetrunks.  Its incarnadine effect upon susceptible humans is increasing even as I write.  Ask those who’ve had to return to their doctors this summer for second and third rounds of treatment.  Global warming isn’t someday.  It’s here now.  And poison ivy is one of its heralds. 

Tasha O’Neill’s portrait of Jewelweed

Few, other than Native Americans, however, know the natural remedy/preventative for this scourge of gardeners and hikers in our region.  The lovely jewelweed, otherwise known as touch-me-not, rises especially in wetlands, usually very near to the plant whose rash it prevents and cures.  The remedy was named because its scalloped leaves hold morning dew in rounds that catch and transform sunrise into rainbows. 

Its fragile orange (sometimes gold or yellow) blossoms remind me of tiny snapdragons.  It’s the juice in the thick icy-green stems, however, that you rub on your skin, should you have stumbled into poison ivy’s ‘leaflets three’ or nettles’ inescapable prickles. 

Applied immediately, at Tom Brown’s insistence, at his Tracker School of wilderness survival, I absolutely prevented that fiery response — to which I had hitherto been sickeningly susceptible.  Applied after the fact, after mal-placement of a hand during a low-down photo op this week, I managed again to fend off that dire systemic rash. 

Curiosity landed me in a nettle patch on Bull’s Island a year ago.  Nearby jewelweed groves caused another form of curiosity - could it be?  Nature often signals remedies…  Sure enough, after the nettle encounter, salved with jewelweed juice from its sagey stems, about twenty minutes was all I had to endure of that new torture.  Once bitten, twice shy, believe-thee-me!

There are many reasons to treasure jewelweed, not the least of which is the aesthetic.  There is a freshness about this plant, a particular vibrancy, that puts new bounce in the hikers’ step, –which it accomplished on a high dark muddy Berkshires trail this week.  Jewelweed ignites a forest, reveals a stream.  In fall, its seedpods, popping at a light caress, earn its nickname, touch-me-not.

Cool Woman Poet, Betty Lies, is a dear friend, whose new collection of poetry, The Blue Laws, will be launched at the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m., upstairs by the fireplace.  Come join us to hear her remarkable work. 

One of the delights of hearing Betty’s poems, besides their lyricism, is their unexpected directions and juxtapositions.  Anyone encountering her work can expect to be surprised.  Here is her tribute to jewelweed.  Enjoy:

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