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ground
ivy
glechoma hederacea
Ground ivy, also known as creeping charlie, is a very
common and widely vilified yard weed with opposite
round-toothed, kidney-shaped leaves and purple,
springblooming flowers. It is often confused with
other early flowering spring plants like speedwell,
purple deadnettle, and henbit.
It crawls (creeps?) along the ground, rooting along
the way with its four-sided trailing stem, from
which the upright flower stalks rise. This is
one of those plants that, when people see it, they say,
"I have that growing in my yard", usually along edges or in
the garden. Perhaps an even larger quantity of
people recognize its characteristic aroma, but don't
recognize the plant by sight.
I’ve heard people say, “That smells familiar… like
picnics or mowing the lawn". People pull up
lots of ground ivy each year simply to toss it in
the trash or compost... alas! If you’re going
to pull it up, you’d do well the rinse off the dirt
and make something with it, because it’s a damn
useful plant.
Although ground ivy is little used nowadays by most
contemporary herbalists, and almost entirely absent
in herbal commerce, it was once among the most
esteemed of herbal remedies. Like so many of our
forgotten and neglected herbs, its subtle and gentle
effects have led to its fall from general use.
Nibbling the leaves or flower will reveal it to be
decidedly aromatic, astringent and mildly bitter,
and energetically we would consider it mildly
warming, drying and toning. As preparations, I prefer tinctures
of the fresh plant, or tea made from the recently
dried herb. Despite claims it should be
gathered in the spring, I find it virtuous all
season long, and because the dried herb doesn't seem
to retain its aromatics when stored a long time, I
like to gather it throughout the year.
I primarily rely on ground ivy to address upper
respiratory infections and urinary issues.
Being both aromatic and astringent, a tea or
tincture of the stems, leaves, and (if present)
flowers helps to both break up mild congestion and
check runny noses and post nasal drip caused by
infections, allergies, or who knows what. This
kind of congestion can give rise to headaches.
Katja Swift has
such a memorable description I
just have to quote her: "Ground
Ivy helps ease headaches that arise due to
stagnation of fluids in the sinuses and ears. What
does that feel like? Stuffiness, pressure,
heaviness. One client describe it like this: 'your
head’s wrapped in wet cotton and your brain’s trying
to squeeze out of your eyes'". Yeah,
that. Extending beyond the upper respiratory
tract, it has a particular affinity for all manner
of ear stuff. If you've got an upper
respiratory infection that's also a throat cold
(maybe aggravated by that post
nasal drip) and then it goes up into your ears via
the
Eustachian tube, ground
ivy, perhaps complimented by echinacea, rocks.
Nicholas Culpeper wrote
that "The juice dropped into the ears, doth
wonderfully help the noise and singing of them, and
helpeth the hearing which is decayed", and indeed,
ground ivy is one strategy that might benefit
tinnitis. Finnish herbalist
Henriette Kress writes
"It's
one of the few herbs that can touch noise-induced
tinnitus. A lot of people read my first book in
Finnish (the one from 2000, not the Finnish version
of Practical Herbs), grabbed the ground ivy, and
could start working again ... they'd been on
disability for their tinnitus for years. I know
because quite a few told me. It's 2-3 cups of tea
for weeks or months on end, or until the noise
stops." Note that
this is often a long term strategy, and not a
quick fix. I've also found ground ivy helpful
for tinnitis that manifested after the kind of head
cold described above. Again, its a long term
fix, and giving up on it after a few weeks means
you'll never know if it might have worked.
Though there is a tradition of using ground ivy for
lung issues, I don't often use it this way unless
the upper respiratory indications are also present.
The old folk herbalists all noted its merit
in addressing persistent coughs of long standing.
Culpeper advised its use for "exulcerated lungs",
and it was considered a most useful herb in the
treatment of consumption (a respiratory affection
which Thomsonian herbalist Benjamin Colby described
as "characterized by emaciation, debility, cough,
hectic fever, and purulent expectoration, & night
sweats..."). Other application I've used it
for is treating the lingering cough of a person
quitting smoking, or those left with a persistent
cough by allergies. Being aromatic and drying in
nature, it is best suited to treating damp coughs,
though could be adjusted for drier coughing by
combining it with demulcent herbs such as
marshmallow, violet, plantain or mullein. Like
many aromatics, the infusion, drunk hot, will act as
a diaphoretic. I would be most inclined to use
it when its respiratory indications are presenting.
Wait, didn't I mention urinary issues a few
paragraphs ago? This is the other system I
find ground ivy tea spectacular for. Being
aromatic, it acts as a diuretic, while at the same
time offering antimicrobial and antiinflammatory
actions to the urinary tissues as the volatile oils
are cleared via the urine. It's astringent
action also tones urinary tissues, which impairs
bacterial adherence and lessens both inflammation
and mucus discharge (pyuria). This makes it a
wonderful herb to use in formulas used to address
urinary tract infections. Like goldenrod, an
herb whose urinary virtues are quite similar, ground
ivy seems to act as an antilithic; something to help
break up and expel kidney stones. Formulation
is key here; I wouldn't use it all on its own, and
it still may be an agonizing experience (though
perhaps for a shorter duration of time).
Perhaps(?) related to its action on the kidneys,
ground ivy has been shown to increased urinary lead
excretion. We find reference to this use in
Greive's Modern
Herbal
and King's American dispensatory, which states "An
infusion of the leaves is highly recommended in lead
colic,
and it is stated that painters who make use of it
often are never troubled with that affliction."
That last bit is probably an overstatement but
herbalist David Winston, intrigued by Grieve claims,
began suggesting 1.5 to 2ml of the fresh plant
tincture 3 times a day some 30+ years ago, and has
seen increased urinary lead excretion, quantified by
testing. This probably makes it a better
option than cilantro, which although popularly
believed to remove lead has
little actual evidence
to back up this claim. Ground ivy's ability to
increase lead excretion has led to claims it removes
mercury and other
heavy metals as
well... I'm not sure. Some claims about herbs
(like "this helped my headache") are qualitative,
and can be made based on the collective experience
of people who use herbs. But claiming
something removes heavy metals is a quantitative
statement, and really requires actual testing to see
if this is really the case (I at least, have never
been peeing and confidently felt like lots more
heavy metals were coming out than normally do...).
Topically, it has been said to be an excellent wash
for "running scab sores and ulcers" and in cleansing
the body of infected puss, both uses that seem to
suggest astringent and antimicrobial activity. This
would be a safe assumption to make, as it is
strongly aromatic, and aromatics, as a class of
herbs, are noted for their antimicrobial activity.
The plants astringency would check discharges and
excess secretions. Both properties exhibit
anti-inflammatory actions, by differing but
complimentary mechanisms.
David Winston shares
that “Ground ivy is also used topically to dispel
blood stasis and for traumatic swellings – i.e., for
sprains, bruises, and infections”.
Under its name "alehoof", it was prized among herbs
used in the brewing of beer. Before beer was largely
"standardized" to contain primarily hops, barley,
water and yeast, literally hundreds of different
herbs were used to create a myriad assortment of
fermented beverages. Most of these possessing strong
curative and restorative medicinal properties, and
prior to the ready availability of distilled alcohol
to make tinctures it making herbal ales was a very
effective way to preserve herbal preparations.
Or, just make tea. Maude Grieve tells us in
A Modern Herbal
that "An excellent cooling beverage, known in the
country as Gill Tea, is made from this plant, 1
ounce of the herb being infused with a pint of
boiling water, sweetened with honey, sugar or
liquorice, and drunk when cool in wineglassful
doses, three or four times a day." This would make a
great iced tea to cool yourself off after an
exhausting day of yard work, after which, quite
likely, you'll have plenty of ground ivy on hand.
©
jim mcdonald
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