Plant Families

Mostly tropical herbs and shrubs, marked by fine crystal streaks in the leaf and seed capsules that burst open when dry. Medicinally the family is andrographis, an intensely bitter herb used for colds and sore throats.

A single genus of grass-like wetland plants with thick, aromatic rhizomes, and the oldest surviving branch of the monocots. Its one medicine is calamus, a digestive bitter and traditional memory herb.

A small family of shrubs and small trees with flat clusters of tiny white flowers, long filed with the honeysuckles. Elder is its medicinal member, used in flower and berry for colds and flu.

Leaf succulents of arid southern Africa whose leaves glitter with water-storing bladder cells, hence the name ice plant. Kanna, chewed by the San and Khoikhoi as a mood-lifter, is its medicine.

Mushrooms that form root partnerships with trees, recognised by a cup at the stem base and often a ring and warty cap. It holds the deadliest mushrooms known, alongside the psychoactive fly agaric.

Hardy, often weedy herbs and leafy crops, now including the old goosefoot family of beet, spinach and quinoa. Many are nutritive grains and greens; suma root is used as a tonic.

Bulb-forming plants that now include the onions alongside daffodils and amaryllis. The alliums bring sulfur chemistry and garlic; the amaryllids bring alkaloids such as galantamine.

Resinous trees and shrubs, including cashew, mango, pistachio and the sumacs. Several carry urushiol, the skin irritant in poison ivy, so the family is as much a contact hazard as a food source.

Tropical trees and shrubs with aromatic bark and soft, custard-like fruits such as soursop and pawpaw. Graviola and the perfume flower ylang ylang are its members here.

The umbellifers: hollow-stemmed aromatic herbs with flat, umbrella-like flower clusters, including carrot, parsley, fennel and dill. A source of digestive herbs and spices, it also holds poison and water hemlock.

A largely tropical family of vines, shrubs and trees with milky latex and potent alkaloids, now including the milkweeds. Periwinkle, gymnema and cryptolepis are medicinal; several relatives are heart poisons.

The hollies: one genus, Ilex, of mostly evergreen trees and shrubs with glossy leaves and red or black berries. A few South American species are brewed as caffeinated teas, yerba maté and guayusa.

Plants recognised by a fleshy flower spike wrapped in a hooded leaf, from tiny duckweeds to calla lilies. Needle-like oxalate crystals make the raw tissue burn; skunk cabbage was used as a respiratory remedy.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Woodland and tropical plants with compound leaves and round umbrella-shaped flower clusters, including ivy. Its saponin-rich roots give the ginsengs, eleuthero and devil's club, the classic adaptogens.

The palms: monocot trees with a single trunk crowned by large feather or fan leaves, including coconut and date. Saw palmetto berries are used for the prostate; areca nut is a chewed stimulant.

Woodland herbs and vines with heart-shaped leaves and pipe-shaped flowers that trap flies. The family is defined by aristolochic acid, a kidney toxin and carcinogen, so its long traditional use is now a cautionary one.

No published herbs in this family yet.

A broad monocot family that now includes agave, yucca, hosta and hyacinth alongside asparagus. Steroidal saponins run through it; shatavari root is its main medicine, a nourishing female reproductive tonic.

A family of moulds, not plants, including Aspergillus, Penicillium and Monascus. Monascus ferments rice into red yeast rice, whose monacolin K is the same molecule as the statin lovastatin.

Succulent and rhizomatous monocots, including the aloes, daylilies and asphodels. Aloe gel is the soothing, mucilaginous medicine; the yellow latex under the leaf skin is a strong laxative.

One of the largest plant families, recognised by its composite flower heads: what looks like one flower is many tiny florets. Rich in bitter compounds, it gives echinacea, chamomile, calendula and milk thistle, and is a common source of plant allergy.

Shrubs and woodland herbs, many with bright yellow inner bark and roots. That colour is berberine, which makes barberry and Oregon grape bitter antimicrobials; blue cohosh is the family's uterine herb.

Catkin-bearing trees and shrubs of the northern forests: birches, alders, hazels and hornbeams. Birch bark is rich in betulin, used in modern wound-healing gels, and its leaf is a traditional diuretic.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Mostly tropical trees and vines with large, showy trumpet-shaped flowers. Several are known for medicinal barks, most famously pau d'arco from the South American lapacho tree.

Bristly-haired herbs whose flowers unroll from a coiled stem, often turning pink to blue, including borage and forget-me-not. Comfrey is the classic wound herb; many members carry liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

The crucifers, named for their four-petalled cross-shaped flowers: cabbage, mustard, radish and cress. Their pungent bite comes from glucosinolates; maca, isatis and shepherd's purse are the medicinal members.

Tropical trees and shrubs that bleed fragrant resin when the bark is cut. Those resins are frankincense and myrrh, used for millennia as incense and as anti-inflammatory and wound medicines.

Stem succulents of the Americas with leaves reduced to spines, identified by the areole, the cushion that spines and flowers grow from. Its medicinal interest is the ceremonial mescaline cacti, peyote and San Pedro.

Herbs with bell-shaped or two-lipped flowers and often milky sap, including the bellflowers and lobelias. Codonopsis is a gentle Chinese qi tonic; lobelia is a potent respiratory and relaxant herb.

A small family of wind-pollinated plants with resin glands on the female flowers, including hemp, hops and hackberry. Cannabis and hops both carry calming, bitter resins used for sleep, pain and appetite.

Shrubs and small trees of hot, dry regions, related to the mustards and sharing their pungent glucosinolate chemistry. Capers come from here; crataeva bark is an Ayurvedic remedy for urinary stones.

Shrubs, vines and herbs with opposite leaves and paired, tubular flowers: honeysuckle, snowberry, teasel and valerian. Valerian root is a classic sleep herb; honeysuckle flower is used for colds and heat.

Slender herbs with swollen leaf joints and notched petals: pinks, carnations, campions and chickweed. Chickweed is a cooling skin and nutritive herb, and kid ginseng (Pseudostellaria) a mild Chinese tonic.

The deer: hoofed browsing mammals in which nearly all males grow new antlers each year. The growing antler, cut while still in velvet, is a long-established tonic in Chinese medicine.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Bulbous and corm-forming monocots split from the lily family, including autumn crocus and gloriosa lily. They carry colchicine, the gout drug and a deadly poison in the whole plant.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Tropical trees, shrubs and mangroves, dominated medicinally by Terminalia and its heavy load of tannins. Arjuna bark is the Ayurvedic heart herb, and haritaki is one of the three fruits of triphala.

Twining vines with funnel-shaped flowers that open for a single morning, including bindweed and sweet potato. Morning glory seeds carry LSA, a mild psychedelic; the roots of some relatives are strong purgatives.

Fungi that parasitise insects, sending up bright, fleshy fruiting bodies from the host's remains. Cordyceps militaris, now grown on grain, is its medicinal member, used for energy and stamina.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Shrubs and small trees with opposite leaves whose veins curve toward the tip; pulled apart gently, a leaf stretches fine latex threads. Dogwood barks are astringent, and Asian cornelian cherry fruit is a tonic.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Succulents with thick, water-storing leaves, often in rosettes: stonecrops, houseleeks, jade plants and kalanchoe. Rhodiola, a cold-hardy mountain species, is the family's well-known adaptogen.

Sprawling vines climbing by tendrils, with large fleshy fruits: squash, pumpkin, cucumber and melons. Bitter melon is used for blood sugar, and gynostemma is a Chinese adaptogenic tea.

Resinous conifers with scale-like or needle leaves: cypresses, junipers, cedars and redwoods. Juniper's berry-like cones are a classic urinary and digestive herb, and the aromatic cedars were important Indigenous medicines of the Northwest.

Twining vines with heart-shaped, strongly veined leaves and large starchy tubers; true yams are a staple food. Wild yam carries diosgenin, the starting material for synthetic hormones, though the root itself has no hormonal action.

Spring cup fungi with brain-like, folded caps, unrelated to the gilled mushrooms. The false morel is still eaten in Scandinavia after repeated boiling; its gyromitrin breaks down into monomethylhydrazine, a nerve and liver toxin.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Hardy shrubs coated in silvery scales that give the leaves a metallic sheen, fixing their own nitrogen on poor ground. Sea buckthorn's oils are the family's main medicine; soapberry is a North American food.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Leafless, jointed-stemmed desert shrubs, a cone-bearing gymnosperm rather than a flowering plant. Ephedra is the source of ephedrine, a stimulant and decongestant used in China for millennia.

The horsetails: ancient spore-bearing plants with hollow, jointed stems and no true leaves, unchanged for some 300 million years. Their silica-rich stems are used as a mineralising and toning diuretic.

Shrubs of acid soil and bog with small bell- or urn-shaped flowers: heathers, rhododendrons, blueberries and cranberries. Bearberry leaf is a urinary antiseptic, and the berries are rich in protective pigments.

Tropical shrubs and small trees, nearly all in the genus Erythroxylum, with two pale lines along each leaf. Coca leaf, chewed in the Andes for millennia, is a mild stimulant and the source of cocaine.

A huge family held together by milky, usually irritant latex, from desert succulents to rubber trees, cassava and castor. Most of it is hazardous; dragon's blood resin is its well-studied medicine.

No published herbs in this family yet.

The legumes, the third-largest plant family, recognised by their pea-like flowers and pods and their nitrogen-fixing roots. They give licorice, astragalus, red clover, fenugreek and senna, more tonic roots than any other family.

The oaks, beeches and chestnuts: dominant broadleaf trees of the northern forest, whose nut sits in a cup, as in the acorn. Oak bark is among the strongest astringents in herbal medicine, owing to its tannins.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Tough bracket fungi on standing timber that rot the wood from the inside, leaving it brown and crumbling. Their bitter triterpenes, rather than β-glucans, drive the medicine; agarikon is the old European remedy.

No published herbs in this family yet.

An animal family, not a plant: the ants, some 14,000 species of social insects on every continent but Antarctica. Black mountain ants (Polyrhachis) are a Chinese qi and kidney tonic.

An animal family, not a plant: the ants. Black mountain ants (Polyrhachis) are used in Chinese medicine as a qi and kidney tonic.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Woody bracket fungi with a shiny, lacquered cap, growing on dead and dying hardwoods. Reishi, the family's medicine, is one of the most valued tonics in Chinese and Japanese practice, used for immunity and calm.

Herbs with vivid blue, yellow or purple tubular flowers, found from alpine meadows to the tropics. Their roots are among the most bitter substances known, which makes gentian the reference digestive bitter.

Herbs with five-petalled flowers and a long, beak-like fruit, hence the name cranesbill. Many are astringent; pelargonium root is used for bronchitis, and herb Robert is a traditional wound herb.

No published herbs in this family yet.

A single living species, Ginkgo biloba, the last of a lineage that dates to before the dinosaurs, with fan-shaped leaves. Ginkgo leaf extract is among the most researched herbal medicines, used for circulation and memory.

Polypore fungi that grow in large, clustered rosettes of overlapping caps at the base of hardwoods. Maitake, or hen-of-the-woods, is the family's medicine, a culinary mushroom studied for immunity and blood sugar.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Temperate shrubs and small trees, several flowering in autumn or midwinter with spidery, ribbon-like petals. Witch hazel is the family's medicine, a tannin-rich astringent for skin, veins and bruises.

Wood-decay fungi with cascading icicle-like spines instead of gills or pores. Lion's mane is the medicinal member, eaten as food and studied for nerve growth and memory.

Ornamental shrubs and small trees with dense, showy flower heads, including hydrangeas and mock oranges. Wild hydrangea root is a traditional North American remedy for urinary stones and gravel.

Tough, often woody fungi that rot living trees, with rust-brown tissue. Chaga, the black, charcoal-like growth on birch, is its medicinal member, rich in melanin and used as an antioxidant tonic.

Small brown-spored mushrooms, mostly on dung, soil and wood. It holds both the psilocybin mushrooms, now in clinical trials for depression, and the deadly galerina, which carries the same toxin as the death cap.

Herbs and shrubs with bright yellow flowers and leaves dotted with translucent oil glands and dark pigment spots. St. John's wort is its medicine, an antidepressant with significant drug interactions.

Showy monocots growing from rhizomes, bulbs or corms: irises, crocuses and gladioli. Saffron is the dried crocus stigma, studied for mood; orris root from iris is a fragrant fixative and expectorant.

Large aromatic trees with compound leaves and hard-shelled nuts: walnuts, hickories and pecans. The green hulls and leaves are stained with juglone and tannins, and black walnut hull is a traditional antifungal and vermifuge.

Bracket fungi that rot wood brown, recognised as their own family in 2017. Chicken of the woods, with its bright orange-and-yellow shelves, is the best-known member and a prized edible.

No published herbs in this family yet.

The mint family: aromatic herbs with square stems, opposite leaves and lipped flowers. It gives more kitchen and medicinal herbs than almost any other: mints, sage, thyme, lavender, lemon balm, skullcap and holy basil.

Aromatic evergreen trees and shrubs, mostly tropical, with oil cells in the leaves and bark: bay laurel, avocado, cinnamon and camphor. Its warming spices, above all cinnamon, are used for digestion and blood sugar.

A small family of slender herbs with five-petalled, often blue flowers. Its one major member is flax, grown for linen fibre and for the seed, a soothing bulk laxative rich in omega-3 oils and lignans.

The clubmosses: low, evergreen spore-bearing plants older than the flowering plants, resembling moss-covered cords. Chinese clubmoss (Huperzia) yields huperzine A, studied for memory.

Herbs, shrubs and trees with crinkled petals, including loosestrife, henna, crape myrtle and pomegranate. Many are tannin-rich; sinicuichi was used by the Aztecs for its unusual effect on hearing and memory.

Ancient flowering trees and shrubs with large, primitive flowers, an early branch of the flowering plants. Magnolia bark is used in Chinese medicine for anxiety, sleep and digestion.

Tropical vines and shrubs whose flowers carry oil glands that feed specialist bees. The ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) is the family's medicine, the backbone of the Amazonian brew.

The mallows, now including the lindens, cacao and hibiscus, often with five-petalled flowers and a central column of stamens. The family is known for mucilage: marshmallow and linden are soothing demulcents.

Woodland and meadow monocots split from the old lily family, including trilliums and false hellebore. Several carry steroidal alkaloids that make them poisonous; beth root is a traditional uterine astringent.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Tropical trees, many prized as timber, including mahogany and the cedars of Cedrela. They carry bitter limonoids; neem is the medicinal member, used for skin, teeth and as a natural insecticide.

Tropical climbing vines with bitter, alkaloid-rich roots and stems, named for their crescent-shaped seeds. Guduchi is a major Ayurvedic tonic; the family also gave curare, the arrow poison.

Aromatic evergreen trees and shrubs of the Southern Hemisphere, related to the laurels. Boldo leaf from Chile is its medicine, a traditional liver and digestive herb.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Fleshy, cool-season herbs split from the purslane family, including miner's lettuce and spring beauty. Their value is as wild foods, above all bitterroot, a staple root of the Interior Plateau peoples.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Aromatic shrubs of bog, heath and coastal dune, dotted with resinous yellow glands and fixing their own nitrogen. Bayberry bark was a classic astringent; bog myrtle flavoured beer before hops.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Tropical rainforest trees with red sap and aromatic seeds wrapped in a lacy red aril. Nutmeg and mace come from here, and the resin of Virola makes the DMT-bearing snuff epeña.

Aromatic trees and shrubs with leaves dotted with oil glands, mostly of the southern hemisphere: eucalyptus, clove, guava and myrtle. A leading source of antimicrobial essential oils and of manuka honey.

Small rhizomatous monocots of bog and wet pine barren, with grass-like leaves and slender flower spikes. True unicorn root (Aletris) is its one medicinal member, a traditional digestive and uterine bitter.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Salt-tolerant shrubs and herbs of Old World deserts and steppe. Syrian rue (Peganum harmala) is its medicine, a seed rich in harmala alkaloids, the same chemistry as the ayahuasca vine.

Mostly tropical American plants, often with coloured bracts and flowers that open in the late afternoon, including bougainvillea. Punarnava (Boerhavia), known in Brazil as erva tostão, is a long-used diuretic and liver herb.

The water lilies: rooted aquatic plants with floating leaves and showy flowers, among the earliest flowering plants. Blue lotus, sacred in ancient Egypt, is a mildly sedative, dreamy relaxant.

Tropical trees and shrubs, several of them partial root parasites. Muira puama, the Amazonian 'potency wood', is its medicinal member, used as a nerve and libido tonic.

Trees, shrubs and vines with opposite leaves and four-lobed flowers: olive, ash, lilac, jasmine and forsythia. Their leaves carry bitter secoiridoids; olive leaf is used for blood pressure and immunity.

Gilled mushrooms that grow on wood, with a toxic, glow-in-the-dark genus (jack-o'-lantern). It also holds shiitake, the most widely cultivated medicinal mushroom, used as a food and immune tonic.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Herbs with four-petalled flowers and a long tube beneath, including fireweed, evening primrose and fuchsia. Fireweed is a soothing gut and prostate herb, and evening primrose seed oil a source of GLA.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Fungi that parasitise insects and other hosts, with dark, tough fruiting bodies. It holds the wild caterpillar fungus of the Tibetan Plateau, the original cordyceps of Chinese medicine.

The orchids, the largest flowering-plant family, with intricate, symmetrical flowers and dust-like seeds. Its medicinal role is small: vanilla is the main member, along with a few Chinese tonics such as Dendrobium.

Plants that live partly or wholly off the roots of others, from the leafless broomrapes to green hemiparasites like eyebright. Rehmannia and cistanche are major Chinese tonics; eyebright is a traditional eye herb.

A single genus, the peonies: perennials and shrubs with large, showy flowers and thick roots. Peony root is a cornerstone of Chinese medicine, used for cramping, pain and women's health.

Herbs with milky or coloured sap and four-petalled flowers, including poppies, bleeding heart and greater celandine. Their alkaloids make them pain-relieving and calming, with California poppy and corydalis the gentler members.

The largest lichen family, a partnership between a fungus and an alga rather than a plant. Usnea, the hanging 'old man's beard', is its medicine, an antibacterial for skin and throat.

Climbing vines with tendrils and intricate flowers with a fringed corona, plus passion fruits. Passionflower leaf and stem are gentle nervines for anxiety and sleep.

Plants of dry African and Asian country, often with hooked or clawed fruits: sesame and devil's claw. Devil's claw's bitter tubers are used for joint and back pain.

Herbs, shrubs and trees split from the spurges, many with leaves in two neat rows and flowers hanging beneath. Amla fruit is a major Ayurvedic tonic, and chanca piedra a remedy for kidney stones.

Wood-rotting gilled mushrooms, often with deeply rooted stems, including the honey fungi. Enoki, grown pale and slender in the dark, is the culinary member, studied for immune effects.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Herbs, shrubs and small trees of warm regions, with dark purple berries in drooping clusters. Poke root is a traditional lymphatic remedy and a recorded poison, so it is used only in small doses.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Resinous conifers with needle-like leaves and woody cones: pines, firs, spruces, larches and hemlocks. Needles, bark, resin and pollen are used as antioxidants, expectorants and wound dressings.

Tropical vines, shrubs and herbs with tiny flowers on slender spikes. Black pepper and kava both come from Piper: pepper's piperine boosts absorption, and kava's kavalactones calm anxiety.

A family reshaped by DNA studies, now spanning plantains, snapdragons, speedwells, foxglove and bacopa. Plantain and psyllium are soothing and mucilaginous, bacopa is a memory herb, and foxglove is a heart poison.

Fan-shaped wood-rotting mushrooms grown worldwide as food, and in the wild among the few fungi that trap and eat nematodes. Oyster mushroom carries natural lovastatin and immune-active β-glucans.

No published herbs in this family yet.

The grasses: hollow-stemmed monocots with narrow leaves and wind-pollinated flowers, including every cereal crop. Oats, corn silk and couchgrass are soothing nervine and urinary herbs, and lemongrass is aromatic.

Herbs and shrubs with flowers that look like small pea blossoms, named milkwort for an old belief about milk flow. Senega root is a saponin-rich expectorant used for coughs.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Herbs and climbers with a papery sheath where each leaf meets the stem: knotweeds, docks, sorrel, buckwheat and rhubarb. Many are anthraquinone laxatives; Japanese knotweed is a source of resveratrol.

Ferns of rock, soil and tree bark, spreading by creeping rhizomes. Samambaia (Polypodium) is used for skin conditions and as an oral sun-protective.

Tough bracket fungi that decay wood, with pores beneath instead of gills. Turkey tail is a well-studied immune mushroom, and tinder conk was carried by Ötzi the Iceman for fire-starting.

Low herbs of meadows and woodland, with five-lobed flowers in spring: primroses, cowslips and cyclamen. Primrose root is a saponin-rich expectorant used for coughs.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Leafy liverworts: small, flattened, moss-like plants that grow on bark and rock. A few produce bibenzyl compounds that have drawn pharmacological interest.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Herbs with many-stamened flowers, including buttercups, anemones, columbines and larkspurs. It holds valued medicines (goldenseal, black cohosh, coptis) and classic poisons (monkshood, larkspur), so it is known species by species.

Shrubs, trees and climbers, often thorny, with small, inconspicuous flowers. Cascara bark is a stimulant laxative, and the seed of the sour jujube (zizyphus) is a calming Chinese sleep herb.

The rose family: flowers with five petals and many stamens, and fruits that include apples, cherries, strawberries and raspberries. It is broadly astringent, with hawthorn for the heart and meadowsweet for the gut.

A huge, mostly tropical family with opposite leaves and tubular flowers, including coffee and the bedstraws. It gives coffee, cinchona's quinine, kratom, cat's claw and cleavers.

Aromatic trees and shrubs whose leaves are dotted with translucent oil glands: citrus, rue, buchu and prickly ash. Their bitter, scented oils are digestive and antimicrobial; buchu is a urinary herb.

Fast-growing trees and shrubs of riverbanks and wet ground: willows, poplars and aspens. Willow bark's salicin is the natural forerunner of aspirin, used for pain and fever.

A small family of shrubs and small trees of dry Africa, Arabia and South Asia, with pungent mustard-like chemistry. The twigs of the toothbrush tree are chewed as miswak to clean teeth and gums.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Trees, shrubs and climbers, many with saponin-rich fruit used as soap: maples, lychee, horse chestnut and soapberry. Guarana seed is a caffeine stimulant, and horse chestnut is used for veins.

A small family of wetland herbs with pungent leaves and flowers on slender spikes. Fish mint (Houttuynia), eaten as a vegetable in Southeast Asia, is used for lung and skin infections.

Aromatic woody vines and small trees, an early branch of the flowering plants. Schisandra, the five-flavour berry, is a Chinese adaptogen and liver tonic; star anise is the spice.

The figworts, reduced by DNA studies to a smaller core that includes figwort, mullein and buddleja. Mullein is its main medicine, used for coughs and ear infections.

Tropical trees and shrubs with intensely bitter wood and bark, from compounds called quassinoids. Simarouba bark is a traditional remedy for dysentery and parasites.

Tough climbing vines, often thorny, that grip with paired tendrils. Sarsaparilla's saponin-rich root is a traditional blood-cleansing herb used for skin and joints.

The nightshades: tomato, potato, pepper and tobacco, alongside some of the most potent poisons known. It gives cayenne and ashwagandha as medicines, and datura and deadly nightshade as poisons.

The yews: slow-growing evergreen conifers whose seed sits in a fleshy red cup rather than a cone. Nearly every part is poisonous, yet yew bark gave the cancer drug paclitaxel.

No published herbs in this family yet.

Evergreen trees and shrubs with glossy leaves and camellia flowers. Camellia sinensis is the source of all true tea, rich in caffeine, theanine and catechins.

The truffles: fungi that fruit underground on tree roots and rely on animals digging them up to spread their spores. They are prized as a culinary delicacy rather than as medicine.

Small aromatic shrubs and herbs of the Americas, now often merged with the passionflowers. Damiana leaf, from Mexico, is a traditional nervine and aphrodisiac.

The cattails and bur-reeds: rhizomatous marsh plants with long, strap-like leaves and brown sausage-shaped seed heads. Used across the world as food, tinder and wound dressing, and to stop bleeding.

No published herbs in this family yet.

The elms: deciduous trees with lopsided, toothed leaves and winged seeds. Slippery elm inner bark is a classic soothing demulcent for the throat and gut.

The nettles: herbs, often with stinging hairs, and small green wind-pollinated flowers. Stinging nettle leaf is a mineral-rich nutritive, and the root is used for the prostate.

Herbs and shrubs with square stems, opposite leaves and small flowers on slender spikes: vervains, lantana and lemon verbena. Blue vervain is a bitter, calming nervine.

Temperate shrubs with flat clusters of white flowers and dark berries, the viburnums and elders. Cramp bark and black haw are the classic Western antispasmodics for uterine and muscle cramping.

Vines that climb by tendrils, including the grapevine and Virginia creeper. Grape seed and skin are rich in protective polyphenols, used for circulation and as antioxidants.

Ancient aromatic trees and shrubs of the Southern Hemisphere, one of the earliest branches of flowering plants. Horopito from New Zealand has peppery leaves used as a strong antifungal.

Tropical plants growing from aromatic, branching rhizomes, with showy flowers: ginger, turmeric, cardamom and galangal. Pungent and warming, they are used for digestion, nausea and inflammation.

Hardy shrubs and herbs of dry and salty ground, many with spiny or winged fruits. Tribulus is its medicine, used as a libido and hormonal tonic.