Fireweed

Chamerion angustifolium

Also: Rosebay willowherb, Epilobium angustifolium, Ivan chai

CoolingNeutral moistureTonifying

The first green after a fire, for an irritated gut and inflamed skin.

A tall perennial with spires of magenta-pink flowers that floods burned forests, clearings, and roadsides, followed by long pods that split into silky fluff. Fireweed leaf soothes and tones an irritated gut, and its root makes a cooling poultice for inflamed skin.

Energetics: Cooling, mildly astringent, soothing
Taste: Mild, slightly sweet, faintly astringent
Family: Onagraceae (evening primrose family)
Parts used: Leaves, young shoots, and root

Medicinal uses 3

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

IBS & gut crampingTLC
A soothing, mildly astringent leaf tea for an irritable, inflamed gut and loose stools.
Loose bowelsTLC
Tones loose bowels.
Rashes & eczemaTLC
A poultice of the fresh root soothes boils, rashes, and inflamed skin.

Preparations

Fermented Ivan chai, leaf tea, spring shoots, and root poultices.

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Cautions

Very gentle.
When gathering young shoots, be sure of the plant before the flowers appear.

Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAsk your practitioner

Fireweed is a traditional food, but its medicinal use has not been studied in pregnancy; check with your practitioner before taking it as medicine.

BreastfeedingAsk your practitioner

It has not been studied in nursing; check with your practitioner first.

Folklore

Fireweed is among the first plants to rise from burned ground, and after the Blitz it carpeted London's bomb sites so thickly that Londoners called it bombweed. In Russia the fermented leaves were sold as Koporye tea and exported to Europe before Chinese and Indian tea took over the trade. Its flowers open from the bottom of the spike upward through the summer, and Alaskans say summer is over when the blossoms reach the top.

How to grow

A hardy perennial for full sun and disturbed, well-drained ground that spreads aggressively by underground runners; it is best gathered wild. Pick leaves before flowering and shoots in spring.

In the wild

Burns, clearcuts, roadsides, and mountain meadows across the cooler Northern Hemisphere; one of the most common wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

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