Jewelweed - The Gem against Poison Ivy

When your an active family who loves the outdoors, getting a poison ivy rash is pretty much inevitable. When my children were young and my young boys were very active this seemed like a losing battle. Most of my children would just get a very small rash, but my oldest son would get covered. This poor boy would just have to look at poison ivy and he would break out into a rash. One time his reaction was so severe the doctors tried giving him prednisone, which I reluctantly accepted only for him to get violently sick from this horrible med. There must be something natural I can do for him I thought. I made many oatmeal pastes for this boy.  

 I was so excited when I first heard about this lovely weed at Sturbridge Village. I made sure I knew from my guide every little detail. I wanted the exact name of the plant and he showed me what it looked like. I tried hard to memorize it's characteristics. I was a young mom and I was new to the whole foraging in the woods. I went home that day and looked up this amazing plant. Our family has been using jewelweed ever since! Here is a small post about it and some of the ways we use it.

Jewelweed

First you must know your enemy. Actually knowing where poison ivy is does help somewhat. You can take measure to have someone not so sensitive to it's oils (like my dear hubby) remove it. You can avoid going near it, you can warn others, you can try to keep your animals out of that area. Even with these precautions you still may end up with this rash. If you know you have touched it you can wash quickly and apply the juice of a crushed jewelweed stem.

Poison Ivy - Notice the
"leaves of 3" coming out
of the base of the stem

Virginia Creeper - usually
mistaken for poison ivy
but it has a noticable
5 leaves from the base
of the stem
It will not give you a
rash but it like the same
growing conditions
as poison ivy.
If you see this plant
look further and
poison ivy is probably near!

A patch of poison ivy and virginia creeper.

Jewelweed's pretty orange, spotted, trumpet like
flower. The hummingbirds love to sip from them.

Similarly jewelweed usually grows very close to poison ivy. I guess that is God's way of giving us signs in nature. This is good - this is bad. Do not let it's close proximity deter you from using this great weed. I have managed many times to gather it without getting poison ivy. I believe most of our poison ivy exposure comes from interacting with our animals.

Jewelweed is in the impatiens species. I believe the kind I have is Spotted touch-me-not (Impatiens biflora). It grows to about 5 feet tall and I am forunate to have a few good-sized patches on my property. It is called Jewelweed because water beads up on the leaves making it look like jewels.

A patch of Jewelweed stands about 5 feet tall.

Cutting Jewelweed.

 We usually just use the plant directly all summer. In the fall, however, we harvest as much as we are able. I usually do a few things with it. I infuse it in oil (any except olive oil - it burns) in a crockpot, make tea ice cubes, soak it in apple cider vinegar and dried some out. This year I made soap out of the oils and tea cubes!

Our Jewelweed harvest.

Washed in cool water and laid out to dry.

Jewelweed contains anti-inflammatory properties as well as a fungicide. That is what makes it so beneficial for all skin irritants. It can be used on bug bites, nettle stings and anything else that has got your skin itching and swelling.

It is okay to crush the stems, leaves and flowers.
It helps remove the wonderful, healing juices.

Pouring apple cider vinegar onto it.

Letting the infusion brew in the window.
I will later move it into
dark bottles and stored in my fridge.

Making Jewelweed tea.

Straining out the plant parts. 

Pouring the tea into ice cube trays.

Find this Gem near You!

I hope this was helpful. Let me know. 

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