Plant Rambles

Meet your Green Neighbors

You don’t have to go much further than your backyard, a sidewalk, parking lot or roadside, to find medicinal plants. No matter where you live, the land around you is chock full of edibles and medicinals – even in the urban landscape. One of the most important parts of being an herbalist is your relationship with your local plants, and one of the best ways to cultivate that relationship (and your relationship with other herb lovers) is to go on Plant Rambles.

When we Ramble, we spend time getting to know the plants, in the environment where they thrive. This is not a time for harvesting, but rather a chance to observe and deepen our relationships.  (If you are interested in learning more about foraging and harvesting wild plants, please visit our Foraging Resources Page.)

Plant Rambles offer folks a chance to learn basic plant identification and improve their botany skills. It is also a great opportunity to trade information with other folks about the plants you see, sharing your thoughts on herbal uses, harvesting and medicine making techniques, and so much more.

New to plant id and you haven’t found someone to help you – use a reliable field guide. An old school favorite is Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by “Wildman” Steve Brill, but there are many options, particularly depending on the region you are in.

A crew of people on a Plant Ramble are bundled up for cooler weather. They all stand around a tree, posing for the camera. There is a cute golden retriever with them.

Botany Basics

There are many ways for an herbalist to deepen their relationship with plants.  Botany is one such way. It offers us a language with which we can observe and describe plant characteristics and also a structure through which we can understand the relationships between plants and plant communities. 

An understanding of basic botany will not only enhance your understanding of herbs, but also assists us in the gathering and preparing of our medicines. It has been an important part of our work at Herbalista as we do gather medicines in the field and want to be confident we are making a proper identification.

If you are new to Botany, just know that it is an incredibly interesting world that allows us to look intimately at the herbs, to notice their nuance and details.

Here is a link to our Botany Basics Handout which we hope helps you to start botanizing!

Botany Basics Handout

 

Want to learn more?

In the Field: Free Botany & Foraging Course

Herbalista Free School offers free coursework, including our botany and foraging course called In the Field. We are relaunching this course after move from Teachable over to our own website, and it will become available later this month.

In the Field was developed to help us to deepen and cultivate our relationship with the plants. The course covers:

  • basic botany for the herbalist
  • botanical safety
  • tools and field guides
  • plant family patters
  • urban foraging
  • foraging ethics
  • and more botanical bits ‘n bobs

Here is a little segment of the Intro to Botany section for your viewing pleasure.

All of our courses are self-paced and open for enrollment at anytime!

Elderberry Fire Cider Recipe

ELDERBERRY FIRE CIDER WORKSHEET

In the field course

Learn more about this Course

Other free school Courses

Learn more about Free School Courses

Botany Resources

Looking for more Botany Resources? Here are some we recommend. Please also see our Botany & Foraging Resource Handout for the most up-to-date and complete set of resources, including extra sections on Foraging Ethics and Safety.

Online Resources

Botany in a Day (Plant Family Pattern Method)

7Song’s Website & Resource Handouts

Botany Everyday Website with marc williams

Field Guides

Botany & ID Bits ‘n Bobs

Atlanta Plant Rambles

There are a few places to tap in and join plant rambles in Atlanta.  Please check out the following links for more information:

Dublin Plant Rambles

Herbalista Lorna also offers Plant Rambles in Dublin in support of the Dublin Herb Bike.  These Rambles are by donation with no one turned away for lack of funds. Everything collected goes to the Bike and providing herbal care and comfort to communities in need.

For upcoming Dublin Plant Rambles, please check our Events page

Plant Ramble Gallery

A crew of people on a Plant Ramble are bundled up for cooler weather. They all stand around a tree, posing for the camera. There is a cute golden retriever with them.
A group of around 20 people stand in a circle around Lorna who crouches in the middle of a lawn. There are trees in spring bud behind them.
Around ten people stand along a path through a wide park with trees in the background. There is blue sky dotted with white clouds above.
Someone holds a loop up to their eye to study a plant. The plant is a cutting of Lycopus.
Someone lays on the lawn and studies a sprig of cleavers and takes notes in their notebook.
Lorna kneels in tall grasses while a crowd of people learn over, looking at the plants.
Someone smiles at the camera and motions to a sprig of cleavers that is stuck to their shirt.
A family of adults and children stand are on a plant walk.
Lorna kneels besides several botany books.
Lorna stands in the grove of plants facing a group of people on a plant ramble.
A crowd of people stand around in the middle of a park, looking at the tall grasses.
Lorna stands facing a group of people on a plant walk.
A large group of people stand together, posing for a picture under a large tree.
img-2
Lorna stands facing a crowd of students in school uniforms. They are standing along a grove of trees.
img
Load More