Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/ru/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Garden plants Published: October 22, 2017Last edits: January 20, 2021
- How to collect
- Beneficial features
fireweed herb or narrow-leaved willowherb, or Koporye tea (lat. Chamerion angustifolium = Epilobium angustifolium) is a herbaceous perennial, the type species of the genus Willowherb of the Fireweed family. Among the people, fireweed has many other names: woodpecker, magpie-eyes, fireweed, fireweed, sage grass, virgin herb, Kuril tea, wild flax, weeping weed, sageweed, weeds, tar, sweet clover, wheatgrass, field sage... Ivan grows tea throughout the Northern Hemisphere in light forests, on the edges and clearings, along ditches and embankments, near water, on damp soil and in dry sandy places. It first appears in burnt areas and clearings and dies out as other plants appear there. Fireweed often grows next to raspberries.
Composition of fireweed
Ivan tea is rich in beneficial elements that have a healing effect on the human body as a whole. It contains many vitamins, for example, C, B, P.
Thanks to this, fireweed preparations help increase immunity, improve the appearance of the skin, activate brain activity, and strengthen blood vessels and capillaries.
Contains fireweed and beta-carotene, pectin, lectin, tannins. It also contains microelements, such as:
- iron;
- copper;
- nickel;
- titanium;
- manganese;
- boron
Fireweed has a beneficial effect on the hematopoietic system, bones, kidneys, liver, and heart. In addition, it enhances the production of sex hormones.
The main advantage is that fireweed tea contains neither oxalic acid nor caffeine. The amount of nutrients in a plant can vary, as it depends on the time and place of collection of the herb, as well as on the method of its processing.
Medicinal properties
With constant use of Koporye tea, you can get rid of a number of the following diseases: • Anemia. • Gastritis, ulcer, colitis, pancreatitis. • Inflammation of the prostate gland or prostatitis. • Infertility. • High blood pressure. • Urolithiasis and inflammation in the bladder. • Changes in the ENT organs – tracheitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, bronchitis. • Dermatology. • Pathology of the spleen. • Herpes. • Metabolic-inflammatory skin disease. It is recommended to use infusion and decoction of Koporye tea in the following cases: • In case of poisoning and intestinal dysfunction. • In case of disruption of the nervous system. • For epilepsy. • For rehabilitation from alcoholism, as well as for hangover syndrome. • With an enhanced psychological and emotional state. • For fatigue and overwork. • During the appearance of baby teeth in children. • For endocrine disorders in women. • As an additional means to fight cancer and tumors. • In the treatment of blood diseases. • With reduced immunity and vitamin deficiency.
Ivan-tea for men and women
The healing properties of this plant will help not only men and women, but also children. Ivan tea can cure prostate adenoma and prostatitis, so it has become very popular among men of all ages.
For women, this plant is an essential assistant in the treatment of cystitis, diseases of the genitourinary system and thrush.
Tea from Ivan-tea
Koporye tea is a drink that has a pleasant taste and smell. However, in order to prepare truly healthy tea, you should use only high-quality water. If a person has tried tea with melt or spring water, he will never be able to forget its taste. Five grams of tea per person per day. Since the first time the tea turns out to be very concentrated, it can be brewed several times, while the taste of the tea will be preserved.
Who is contraindicated from using fireweed?
Like any medicinal plant, fireweed tea has contraindications. It should not be given:
- children under 2 years old;
- persons suffering from allergies to this herb;
- people with diarrhea;
- pregnant women;
- people with low blood pressure.
It is better not to use the infusion together with antipyretic medications. And, in general, for your peace of mind, before you start drinking fireweed, you need to consult a doctor.
Treatment of gastritis and stomach ulcers
Preparation of the decoction: pour 3 tbsp. l. dry herbs with 1 cup of boiling water, bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes, cool, strain and drink warm, 2 tbsp. spoons 3 times a day before meals.
This decoction is also used to treat other diseases: for headaches, gargle several times a day for tonsillitis, and make lotions for quick healing of wounds.
Ivan tea contraindications
The herb is safe and side effects occur with an overdose. Do not drink more than 1 glass of tea per day. After a month, take a break for 3-4 weeks.
Use with caution in case of gastrointestinal dysfunction, excessive blood clotting (people at risk of varicose veins and blood clots), and infants.
Method one
Required:
- fireweed tea (dry mixture) – 2 tsp;
- water – 0.5 l.
To boil water. Place the herb in a large mug and pour boiling water over it. Close the container tightly and leave to brew for 10 – 15 minutes.
Mix the broth thoroughly. Use it within 1 – 2 days.
| To obtain a unique taste and aroma of tea, use an antique coal samovar. In such a samovar, tea will retain its healing properties in the best possible way. You can buy a samovar on the website https://samovarkino.ru/samovary |
Growing and care on the site
Ivan tea can be grown in a summer cottage. This plant is famous not only for its medicinal properties, it is also visually attractive. There are two popular methods of growing fireweed.
From seeds
You can buy seeds or prepare them yourself. Collection time is early autumn, 1-2 months after the perennial blooms. The seeds must be thoroughly dried, removing fluff from them. Store in a dry, dark place.
For seedlings, seeds are sown in boxes in early spring. The seeds are very small; if they are sown immediately in the ground, they will be washed away by rain or blown by the wind. The soil for planting needs loose, light soil. Mix river sand, humus and peat in equal proportions. It is not recommended to deepen the seeds; it is better to scatter them over the surface of the soil substrate and “water” them generously from a spray bottle. Cover the box with glass or film and place in a warm place (the temperature for germination should be at least +20 degrees). The first shoots will hatch in about five days.
The seedlings dive when two true leaves appear. Planted in open ground in the first days of summer. Before planting, the seedlings are hardened off by placing them in fresh air for 3 days.
Tip: seedlings should be planted on a cloudy day (preferably in the rain). In the sun, young plants will wither and may even die.
Vegetatively
A simpler method, unlike the previous one. The perennial grows in forest clearings, along roads, and near reservoirs. You can dig up its roots and plant it on your site.
The root system of the medicinal crop is spreading, so it is better to dig it up with a lump of earth. The rhizome is placed in a shallow hole, where humus, sand and ash are first added. After planting, water thoroughly. The top of the soil is mulched with straw or dried grass.
Fireweed transplanted in this way quickly takes root in its new location.
Caring for a flower is not difficult.
The rules of care are as follows:
- the place for growing perennials must be sufficiently lit;
- Water sparingly, depending on the weather. Once a week in the evening or morning during intense heat. A plant from a meadow usually gets enough rain;
- loosen the soil after watering once a month;
- One mineral fertilizing per season is enough;
- for the winter, the stem of the fireweed is cut off, leaving a petiole 15 cm long from the soil;
- A good place for planting is near a fence or outbuilding, in which case the plant will not be damaged by the wind.
Tip: Fireweed grows very quickly. To prevent it from extending beyond the designated area, it must be fenced underground. To do this, iron sheets or slate are dug along the perimeter of the flowerbed to a depth of about 1 meter.
Ivan tea blooms in the second year no matter how it is planted. Flowering period: end of June – mid-August. The pubescent seeds ripen after flowering. To prevent the seeds from being blown across the garden plot by the wind, they must be cut off before they ripen.
Insect pests do not grow on fireweed; it also has good immunity to diseases. Ivan tea improves the condition of the soil on which it grows.
Where does fireweed grow?
The advantage of Ivan tea is that it grows throughout our country. It can be found in any area - near roads, in the forest, in the garden, meadow, clearing. The height of this plant can reach up to one and a half meters.
The flowering period occurs in the second half of summer. It was then that it was customary to harvest this herb and it was at this time that fireweed becomes honey-bearing. His honey is very healthy.
It is optimal to collect fireweed in the forest or in fields located at a considerable distance from the highway and highways. The blank is long leaves.
Botanical description
Angustifolia fireweed reaches a height of 50 to 200 cm. It has a thick creeping rhizome, on the roots of which, both vertical and horizontal, many additional buds develop, promoting vegetative propagation of the plant. The stem of fireweed is simple, round, erect, densely leafy and bare. The leaves are alternate, simple, sessile or short-petioled, linear-lanceolate, pointed towards the apex, and wedge-shaped or almost rounded towards the base, entire or finely glandular-toothed along the edge. The leaves of fireweed are dark green and shiny above, pale pink, purple-red or bluish-green below, they reach 12 cm in length and 2 cm in width.
Bisexual, four-membered pale pink or white fireweed flowers with a nectar ring around the style are collected in a sparse apical raceme from 10 to 45 cm long. Flowering begins in the second half of summer and lasts a little over a month. The fruit of fireweed is a pod-like capsule with bare oblong seeds that ripen in late summer or early autumn.
Fireweed is cultivated as a fodder crop and as a medicinal plant, since the medicinal properties of fireweed have been known for a long time. In addition, fireweed is the best honey plant among all the herbaceous flora of forests.
- How to plant delphinium
Features of collecting this medicinal plant
When to collect fireweed? This should be done in July and August. Moreover, this must be done before the flower fades. Only leaves are collected. It is advisable to prepare more of them, since fermentation and drying lead to a significant change in their volume.
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How to collect and dry fireweed? It is necessary to select whole, clean, healthy leaves. Spoiled, diseased and defective leaves are not suitable. In some cases, both stems and roots are used to prepare preparations. When collecting leaves, you can add a small number of flowers to them.
Now let's figure out how to dry Ivan tea. Drying the plant should take place in a draft. It is better to use paper bags for storage. The herb can be stored for two years.
If you decide to prepare roots, then you should dig them up in the fall. They need to be finely chopped and dried thoroughly. The permissible storage time is three years. The most delicious tea is produced by fermented leaves.
Collection and storage
Medicinal plants are grown not only for beauty and decoration of a personal plot, but also for the purpose of collection and processing. Ivan tea belongs to useful crops, so the gardener must know the rules for planting it, recommendations for care, and the nuances of collection and storage.
Koporye tea is harvested during its flowering period, which occurs in July or August. The healing properties are preserved in flowering specimens of the genus, and when the bush begins to become covered with fluff, they are completely lost.
Preparation of sweet clover consists of 3 important stages.
- Assembly.
- Fermentation.
- Drying.
If all work is done in accordance with the rules, the benefits of the crop will be fully preserved. Collect raw materials for traditional medicines on a sunny day. Do not collect early in the morning when dew accumulates on the stems of fireweed. Wait for the sun to dry the droplets and get to work. Collecting Kuril tea in hot weather is also not recommended. It is better to postpone the procedure until the evening.
Harvesting Ivan tea has its own characteristics. Leaves are torn off from a flowering shoot from top to middle, leaving 3-4 rows of leaf plates under the flowers. Dusty, dirty and diseased specimens cannot be collected. It is the foliage that is subsequently used for medicinal purposes. To make the task easier, hold the peduncle with one hand, and with the other, hold the branch with leaves in your fist and draw it from top to middle. The leaves will remain in your hand.
During assembly, try not to damage the branches and prevent bugs from getting into the medicinal herb. Even one stink bug will completely ruin the collected inflorescences, making them unsuitable for further consumption. Separately, you can collect sweet clover flowers to make aromatic tea in winter.
How to dry fireweed?
Drying woodpecker also has its own nuances. In order to activate the start of fermentation, the culture is dried. The collected leaves are sorted well, removing damaged and disease-infected specimens. Next, the material is placed in a dark room, on a damp linen and cotton cloth. The formed leaf layer should have a thickness of 3-5 cm. The temperature regime is maintained at 20-24 ºC.
Fermentation continues for 12 hours. All this time, periodically stir the foliage to ensure even drying. Determining the completion of fermentation processes is quite easy. Fold one piece of paper in half. Fermentation is considered incomplete if a characteristic crunch is heard, indicating a fracture of the vein in the middle. Well-cured material does not straighten out after being compressed into a ball.
What do you need to know about fermentation conditions for field sage?
The fermentation process of medicinal leaves of fireweed requires separate consideration. In order for the collected raw materials to turn into a fragrant medicinal drink, it must first be properly dried. The structure of the wilted leaves must be destroyed so that the juice begins to release. It is he who activates fermentation processes. A deficiency of leaf juice will have a bad effect on the fermentation of raw materials, and as a result, the finished tea will have a bad taste and a repulsive aroma.
To disrupt the structure of the leaf plate, roll the dried plant material between your palms, carefully kneading it. Then place the fireweed leaves in three-liter glass jars, compacting them well. Cover the top of the container with a damp cloth and keep the dried leaves there for 36 hours. It is advisable to put the jar with the medicinal plant in a dark room at room temperature.
After this, the leaves of fireweed are taken out of the container, kneaded thoroughly and dried in the oven at a temperature of 95-100 ºC, with the door ajar. During such drying, the material must be stirred periodically. The finished medicinal tea is stored in a glass or plastic container, tightly closed with a lid. Being in a dark room, this composition retains its healing properties for 3 years.
It is very difficult to process a large amount of collected raw materials manually. Therefore, to start the fermentation processes, some connoisseurs of natural medicines pass the leaves through a meat grinder. With this processing method, the taste and medicinal characteristics of the finished tea will not be as strong. Cover the crushed raw materials with a damp cloth and keep in the room for 6-8 hours. You can start drying after the material acquires the consistency of soft rubber. Place the chopped leaves on a baking sheet, forming a thin layer. To ensure they dry thoroughly, set the oven temperature to 100 ºC. Stir the medicinal herb periodically and do not close the oven door. At the final stage of drying, increase the temperature slightly to heat the tea and improve its taste. To avoid burning the raw materials, place ceramic tiles on the bottom of the oven before drying. Typically, it takes 2 hours for the tea mass to dry completely.
Tips on how to drink fireweed correctly
Already in Ancient China they knew that the tea ceremony was a real art. Drinking tea was always accompanied by heart-to-heart conversations. This made this procedure a pleasant pastime. In addition, tea has a relaxing effect, giving peace and tranquility. It is better to drink it without sweetening it.
If you have a sweet tooth, you can drink the drink as a snack with dried fruits. The healing properties of fireweed after brewing last only a couple of days, so it is better to drink the tea before this time has expired.
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Ivan tea is not only useful, but also quite a beautiful flower. Therefore, you can safely allocate a small plot in your dacha for growing it.
broadleaf
Broad-leaved willowherb (broad-leaved willowherb) is a herbaceous plant whose habitat is the northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere, arctic and subarctic zones. The length of the leaves of this fireweed is from 1 to 10 cm, the leaves look different - they can be spear-shaped or, on the contrary, oval.
Photo.
Depending on this, at the ends they are rounded or pointed, sometimes they have a small hairline .
Broadleaf fireweed flowers are collected in a brush; they are usually presented in dark pink tones, but occasionally they are also white. This plant is of considerable practical importance for the indigenous inhabitants of the northeast of Russia and North America, especially for the inhabitants of Chukotka, as well as Greenland. They use fireweed tea for food: the leaves are brewed as tea (fruits and flowers are also added) or used raw, for example, for salad with walrus fat. In addition, broadleaf fireweed is the national flower of Greenland.
