How to be a Bioregional Herbalist

Written By Jade Alicandro

Many of us are familiar with the local food movement, but what about the local medicine movement?

Basket full of local medicine: Garden Sage, Thyme, Goldenrod, Self-Heal, Rosa multiflora Rosehips, Plantain and Goldenrod

Bioregional herbalism provides us with the framework to develop a system of healthcare that is place and plant-based, ecologically sound, and can operate independently from the profit-driven system of allopathic medicine in this country. For any individual who understands the importance of living with a light ecological footprint on the earth, bioregional herbalism offers an opportunity to align one’s values with one’s healthcare choices. To be clear, this is not to shame or judge anyone’s choice to engage with western medicine, as there are plenty of times when it is indicated and needed.  

However, bioregional herbalism offers us and holds the potential for deep cultural and planetary healing, as it helps us connect with and be in relationship with the land as a source of medicine and reciprocal healing. In this framework, the land becomes a partner and ally, rather than something we are separate from. It teaches us to trust in, and repair, our relationship with the animate, more-than-human world, and builds intimacy with it, trust being the foundation of any intimate relationship. Bioregional herbalism shows us how to be ecological stewards, provides deep nourishment on both a physical and spiritual level, engenders connection with the land and plants right around us, and kindles the ancestral connection to plants that all humans on this planet have.

I first heard the term “bioregional herbalism” and its description from herbalist, Kiva Rose. I was instantly smitten with the idea and felt it really summarized the way I had been thinking about and working with the plants.  It gave definition and clarity to my herbal practice.  I feel that bioregional herbalism is the missing link in many sustainability-driven movements, such as permaculture, transition towns, local food and fiber movements and so on. If we’re not working with local medicines, then the loop isn’t complete. Now of course, if suddenly everyone started harvesting with wild abandon, then we’d have another sustainability issue on our hands, which is why part of being a bioregional herbalist involves working specifically with locally abundant plants and being a steward of the land and voice for the plants.

Read-on to hear my top tenets and values (in no particular order) that inform my practice of bioregional herbalism and what it means to me…

  • Work with weedy, abundant and introduced plants

A plant doesn’t have to be native to an area to be considered a bioregional herb, although it certainly can be. It doesn’t have to be wild, although again it certainly can be. It can be an introduced species. It can be a weed. It can be a so-called “invasive.”  If it’s growing there then it’s from that bioregion.  I consider home-cultivated plants to be bioregional herbs too, since they fit into this definition as well. Fast-growing, reproductively successful weeds and “invasives” are my main herbal allies. Working with them tends to be extremely ecologically sustainable and fulfills every tenet on this list. 

A plant must be abundant or cultivated in order for us to work with it sustainably.  Discerning what is and isn’t abundant involves lots of research, observation, and patience.  Talk to other herbalists, plant ecologists, and plant people; read the endangered species plant list (avoid harvesting these) and learn to identify these plants, especially at-risk medicinals. Learn the “invasive” species list (become friends with these!) for your state and surrounding states. Learn the United Plant Savers “critical,” “at-risk,” and “to-watch” plant lists, look at the USDA PLANTS Database for the range of the plant and its conservation status…does it grow in every state in the country? Or just your region? We have to take this relativity into mind. In my region in the northeast some of the United Plant Savers listed plants seem pretty abundant, but in many cases the bioregion serves as a genetic and seed bank for that plant and we have to protect these populations all the more because of that. Even if a plant is common in your area, before you harvest it, look around to see if it’s the only one there. Never harvest individual or sparsely growing plants. Making a flower essence is a great way to work with rare or threatened herbs, and you don’t even need to remove the flower from the plant to make an essence.

Cleavers (Gallium aparine), a common weed on farms

  • Learn to read the herbal and ecological landscape

Numerous abundant medicinal plants are commonly found in early to mid-successional areas like farms, gardens, forest/field edges, yards, trail sides, etc.  This is the proverbial hedge. The in-between of wild and human-inhabited spaces. The plants that grow in these edge/hedge areas are most often fast-growing “people plants” that thrive in anthropogenic (i.e. human-created) landscapes, including familiar weeds and also boundary-keeper plants like the Rose Family briars (Rosa spp, Rubus spp) or other thorny plants, various species of vines, and even often Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) or Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) that are quite literally warning us, “Come no further, this forest needs protection from further disturbance.” Noticing the existence of poisonous plants and inquiring into their purpose is an example of reading the herbal landscape. The plants are always talking to us in a myriad of ways!  

The edges/hedges tend to be super abundant since they are associated with land disturbances that us humans are so good at creating.  Areas where two habitats meet (usually forest and field in my bioregion) are particularly medicine-rich because they represent an intersection between two different plant communities and, therefore, have twice the diversity and also often contain plants found in neither the forest or the meadow. Known as the “edge effect” in permaculture, these in-between zones are where the vast majority of my bioregional plant allies dwell. Learn to recognize these areas- you may be surprised how much sustainable medicine they hold.

Conversely, it’s important to learn key indicator plants for old-growth areas so they can be left alone to regenerate or to be wildtended. The medicinals that are the most at-risk of overharvest are plants with long reproductive cycles, which commonly grow in late-successional/old-growth/climax plant communities.  These are not areas to be harvesting medicine from! In my bioregion these late-successional plant communities are forests and an example of an at-risk forest medicinal is Ramps/Wild Leeks (Allium triccocum), which doesn’t even create seeds and mature until it’s 7 years old.  In the Midwest it’s often prairie, in the mountain west it depends on elevation, and so on. It is your responsibility as a bioregional herbalist to learn what these plant communities look like in your bioregion so you can protect and advocate for them, rather than harvest from them.

These late-successional/old-growth/climax plant communities have indicator species, such as American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) in the Appalachians and northeast. Developing an understanding of indicator species is a great starting place for learning how to recognize these very special areas.  On the other end of the spectrum are self-seeding annuals like Cleavers (Gallium aparine) or Chickweed (Stellaria media), fast-growing perennials like Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), and biennials like Burdock (Arcticum lappa) or Evening Primrose (Oneothera biensis) that create tons of seeds as a part of their reproductive strategies. These are all plants we can and should be working with if they are common in our bioregion, and chances are, they are! In order to be a bioregional herbalist, we also have to be citizen scientists and always understand the ecology and life cycles of the plants we are harvesting. We have to learn to read the herbal landscape. Only then can we truly know if sustainable harvest is possible.

  • Become an advocate for both humans and the plants, as our health and the planet’s health are intrinsically intertwined

Do NOT make a product featuring a trendy herb like, say, Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), just because it grows in or might seem abundant in your bioregion. In-fact, if an herb or mushroom from your bioregion is the new trendy “it herb” on the market, then as a bioregional herbalist you should be speaking-out against its potential over-harvest or advocating for sustainable harvesting practices, even if it seems super abundant! Every time an herb booms on the open capitalist market it has the potential to get picked-out or reduced to the point of becoming threatened and we should bring our ethics of The Honorable Harvest (read more on this below) regardless of the conservation status of the plant, as federal conservation agencies are often poorly funded and slow to list plants on the Endangered Species List. I have witnessed this first-hand in my area of western Massachusetts where Chaga mushroom grows, but is not nearly abundant enough to withstand the surging interest and I am seeing it get picked-out and offered in local tea houses as Chaga Chai.  Can you offer a bioregionally abundant analog plant in its stead? With a little creativity you probably can! Bioregional herbalists must also be medicinal plant conservationists. In your harvesting practices, resist the capitalist and consumerist programming of “more is better” and refrain from harvesting more than you need or have time to process. Also work to avoid the beginner herbalist mistake of making way more medicine than you’ll ever need. Start small and make enough to last you year to year.

Another benefit of working with abundant bioregional herbs is the opportunity to divest as much as we can from the consumerist, capitalist machine that drives so much in this country, which includes alternative medicine and herbal supplements. It also helps us avoid buying herbs from countries with poor human rights track records. Most bulk herb companies list the country of origin for their herbs, and if the human rights practices of a particular country don’t line-up with your values, then growing or sustainably collecting your own, trading with other herbalists, or using a locally abundant analog for that plant, is a step towards our collective liberation.  Practicing sustainable bioregional herbalism is an act of resistance!

When working with native plants, strive to do so with deep reverence and acknowledgement for the contributions indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans made and continue to make to the field of American herbalism, especially in terms of the addition of native North American plants into the larger materia medica, such as Echinacea spp, Cramp Bark, Black Cohosh, Blue Cohosh, and more.  And again, reciprocity comes into play. If we are an herbalist of European ancestry benefiting from this knowledge, then we have a responsibility to provide intersectional allyship to current indigenous and Black liberation movements. This could looks providing money to fundraising efforts, rematriating land, donating portions of our income to Land Back projects, and attending protests if and when the call is put-out for our support. We should also be aware of culturally significant plants and, especially if we hear from indigenous voices that a plant is becoming rare and is becoming a trendy new herb, avoid wildcrafting it and speak up for its conservation. White Sage (Salvia apiana) is the perfect example of this- a plant that is sacred to many different indigenous nations in North American and yet has become so commodified it is even available a places like Urban Outfitters and Walmart, wildcrafted, no doubt, as very little on the market is cultivated. If we work with this particular plant then we should be growing it ourselves and it can be grown as an annual in the northeast quite successfully.

Another path towards holding our herbal practices with the utmost integrity is working with and getting to know the plants of our ancestors. For bioregional herbalists of European ancestry, this means working with many of the common weeds growing abundantly around us (and most of the world, actually), which were primarily brought or hitch-hiked from Europe and Asia, like Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Chickweed (Stellaria media), Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), St Johns Wort (Hypericum perforatum), Motherwort (Leonaris cardiaca) and many more. Again, we see that working with the weeds is powerful and important on many levels. This ties into another wonderful and important conversation happening in herbalism today around what we might call “ancestral herbalism,” the idea that working with the plants of our ethnic lineage holds deep potential for ancestral, cultural, and collective healing.  I align with this way of thinking wholeheartedly.

  • Challenge the notion of “invasives”

If you think about it, can a plant actually invade? Isn’t that anthropomorphism, which science is cautioned against adopting? And yet, ecology now classifies certain plants- including even native ones- as “invasive.” I feel this notion is misguided, as it perpetuates the “man vs nature” mythos that drives habitat destruction, the poisoning of the earth and separates us even farther from nature. It also positions humans as the experts when we’ve been around a mere 300,000 years at most, which is a blink of an eye compared to plants. For instance, Roses first emerged in the fossil record at least 35 million years ago and Pine trees (Pinus genus) are believed to be at least 150 million years old. And yet us baby humans are the experts on where a plant “should” or “shouldn’t be,” in the face of climate chaos and in midst of a global mass extinction event? I prefer a re-frame when thinking about and discussing these plants, and sometimes call these plants “opportunistic species,” a less-charged term from ecology, or “traveler plants,” although I’m still not 100% satisfied with these names and am still searching for an even better names for them. Indigenous scientist Dr. Jessica Hernandez has introduced the idea of calling these plants “displaced plant relatives” instead of “invasive.” How beautiful is that?

I believe these plants are merely doing what plants do- survive- and there are numerous opportunities to do so in the fragmented and disturbed landscape that humans create. In their native habitats, these plants are often early successional species, and when they land here they’re filling an ecological niche and tend to thrive in all the disturbance humans are so good at creating with roads, construction, resource extraction, and so on. If it seems like these plants are “taking over,” really it’s a symptom of the larger ecological degradation occurring all around us, not the root cause. That’s part of why they follow us around (or maybe its vice versa), and I like the idea of re-framing as a symbiotic relationship, as many of these plants tend to be wildly medicinal and provide ecological benefits such as erosion control, wildlife food and shelter, phytoremediation, and more. Part of being a bioregional herbalist means working with “invasives” as part of our materia medica. They are certainly abundant and another plus is that you can harvest them from areas where harvesting native plants is usually prohibited (just be sure the area isn’t sprayed with herbicides), like conservation areas, since they’re often so maligned, making them super accessible as well. Here in the northeast a few of my favorite opportunistic medicinals are Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica), Wild Rose (Rosa multiflora), and Barberry (Berberis vulgaris, B. thunbergii).

Also, in regards to thinking about our language around this, in the field of ecology plants are called “non-native invasives,” “invasive alien species,” “alien species,” and “colonizer species.” These terms immediately elicit a somatic response of danger and fear. If this language sounds similar to the hate-driven xenophobia currently at-large in our country, it’s because it is! In the U.S. the terms “illegal alien,” “alien,” and “unauthorized alien” are used in myriad of immigration statuses and, as we know of course, no person is “illegal.” A re-frame for an “invasive” plant is an opportunistic or introduced plant or “displaced plant relative,” like we discussed, and let’s keep thinking of even more ways to describe these plants too! We can borrow less-charged terms from ecology and instead of saying an “alien” species, we can call it “introduced.”  Instead of calling a plant a “colonizer species” we can say it’s an “early successional species.” Instead of a “colony” or plants we can call it a “stand.” And I’m sure that with a collective thought process, we can come-up with even better re-frame terms for all of these instead of reinforcing this doctrine, xenophobia, and divisiveness in our language around plants. Our words are a simple and powerful way we can actively resist and feed less into this paradigm.

And I 100% acknowledge that this topic is multi-layered and complex and I discuss it further on this blog here: Where Does Star Magnolia Belong?

  • The Honorable Harvest: Wildcrafting, wildtending, and reciprocity.

If we’re going to harvest wild plants we should do so in a way that proliferates their population- rather than depleting it- known as wildtending. Robin Wall Kimmerer, plant ecologist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, calls it The Honorable Harvest. This wild-harvesting perspective is implicit in an indigenous worldview. Wildtending includes a variety of practices and may mean that some years we don’t harvest from a particular patch or population because of drought, disease or pest pressure, or any other situation that might threaten a plant’s population.  But in addition to using our deductive left-brain powers of reasoning and observation, we have to sink into our intuition here too. And, of course, we have to ask the plants. If it doesn’t feel right to harvest from a certain patch or plant, then follow that too.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, speaks to this so beautifully:

“Asking permission shows respect for the personhood of the plant, but it is also an assessment of the well-being of the population. Thus I must use both sides of my brain to listen to the answer. The analytic left reads the empirical signs to judge whether the population is large and healthy enough to sustain a harvest, whether it has enough to share.  The intuitive right hemisphere is reading something else, a sense of generosity, an open-handed radiance that says take me, or sometimes a tight-lipped recalcitrance that makes me put the trowel away. I can’t explain it, but it is a kind of knowing that for me is just as compelling as a no-trespassing sign.”

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)

Wildtending might also mean cutting back Asiatic Bittersweet Vines (Celastrus orbiculatus) that are threatening a patch of young Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina)- because, yes, it’s ok to remove opportunistic plants from areas where they are threatening endangered or uncommon native or endemic plants, or even a patch of common medicinals we work with, just don’t use chemicals or methods that cause more disturbance to the area then there was before. It means leaving an area in better shape than we found it, removing trash and litter, or collecting seeds in the fall and spreading them around the site, even if it means an extra trip to that patch in the fall. It looks like moving like an herbivore does across the landscape (have you ever watched a deer browse through a meadow?) when we harvest, taking a little here and a little there, so that you can barely even tell the area has been harvested from, leaving enough for the animals, pollinators, germinating seedlings, and so on.  It involves deep observation and also gets back to being a scientist and understanding- intimately- the reproductive cycle of each plant we harvest so we can help it proliferate.  A simple example here is replanting rootlets and/or pieces of rhizomes on the edges of patches we harvest from to help the plant spread, or only harvesting from the root tips so we don’t affect the crown where the stems grow from.

It also looks like reading the landscape and noticing a habitat where a medicinal would happily grow that doesn’t currently have it and planting it there.  An example here is the northeast would be a wet meadow without any Boneset (Eupatorim perfoliatum) or Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata). This is a habitat which would easily support these two medicinals and you could grow some and transplant it there to start a new population. Or sowing American Ginseng seeds beneath Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum) where you see some of its other companion plants growing, like Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa), Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum), Spice bush (Lindera benzoin) or Trillium (Trillium spp.).  In the case of re-planting I do only promote this practice with native plants and not introduced species.

Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), unfurling

Some might balk at the idea of so intentionally altering a landscape, but we know that pre-colonized North America was actually full of wild gardens or forest gardens, tended by the indigenous peoples already here. Humans have always interacted and changed the landscape and nature is not static, it’s a dynamic, living landscape. Our challenge as bioregional herbalists who value and understand the spiritual, physical, and ecological importance of interacting with the wild, must do so by both wildtending and wildcrafting. If we’re going to harvest from the wild then we have a responsibility to do so in a way that doesn’t cause habitat degradation, and instead actually increases the diversity and health of the bioregion in which we live.  If we can’t harvest a certain plant without doing so, then that right there is our signpost that we should not be harvesting that herb and our focus should move towards its conservation and this brings us back to being medicinal plant conservationists, which every herbalist should be. If a plant is so abundant that it’s close to impossible to over-harvest it, like Japanese Knotweed in the northeast, then we should still be offering our gratitude to that plant and engage with wildtending other more threatened plants or sites as an act of reciprocity.



These are Robin Wall Kimmerer’s guidelines for what she calls the Honorable Harvest. I just love these and think that wildcrafting herbalists should seek to embody these guidelines in our harvesting practices and teach these to our students.

The Honorable Harvest

Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.

Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.

Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.

Never take the first. Never take the last.

Take only what is given.

Never take more than half. Leave some for others.

Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.

Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.

Share.

Give thanks for what you have been given.

Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.

Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.

The summer herb garden with Catnip, Echinacea purpurea, Greek Mullein, and Queen Anne’s Lace

  • Grow your own and/or trade

All that being said about wildtending and interacting with the wild- there is also imitable value in growing your own medicine, even if it’s a plant that does grow in the wild in your bioregion. I still consider this bioregional herbalism. The plant didn’t have to travel to you in a box, wasn’t grown as far away from North America as potentially Central Europe (where most commercial Nettles are grown!) or Egypt (where many commercial spices are grown), and, hopefully, very few- if any- fossil fuels were expended in its growing. If you have a space to grow and the correct conditions to grow that plant, then by all means do so. It’s also an invaluable way to deeply observe and learn a plant’s growing preferences and reproductive cycle, which you can then apply to wildtend wild populations of this plant. Growing a plant also helps build deep intimacy with it. It can also serve as a seed bank and potential source of genetic diversity if a native plant is rare in your area. For instance, American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is endangered and extremely rare in Massachusetts, but this is a part of its native, historic range and it actually grows quite easily when given the right conditions. I grow it under a sugar maple (one of the plants it naturally associates with in the wild) where my yard meets the woods and every year animals eat the berries it creates, no doubt spreading the seeds in their scat. My prayer is that new ginseng patches will spring forth in the woods from this little patch if plants I steward for this purpose only, not to harvest for medicine.

And if you can’t grow your own, then support small-scale, local herb growers- there are more and more small herb farms every year in the US!  Also, remember, you can always trade with other growers who might be in a different zone than you if you’d like a sustainable, non-wildcrafted source of a particular plant that doesn’t grow in your bioregion. We don’t have to do this on our own! Take advantage of the incredibly rich mycelial web of herbalists and growers in this country.

  • Work with locally available menstruums

Explore locally available menstruums in your bioregion- get creative and think outside the box! In my area, which is rich in old heirloom apple trees and orchards, local raw organic apple cider vinegar is available- what a gift! Raw honey is also quite abundant, and our little valley is teeming with beekeepers who have such a righteous and respectful relationship with their bees. Another northeast bioregional specialty is maple syrup, which lends itself well to truffles and other confections, and it can be infused with herbs as well! There are local craft distilleries popping up everywhere too. Just like local plants, local menstruums contain the terroir of the land, the ineffable spirit and qualities of the land from which they hail. This French word literally translates to “earth” or “soil,” but as wine connoisseurs know, it refers to more than that and this is the concept of place reflected in a glass. This same idea can be applied to local menstruums and, therefore, local medicine. And when you combine local menstruums with local herbs, well, let’s just say the effects can be magical and deeply nourishing on a both a physical and soul level, not to mention extremely ecologically sustainable.

Nest built in the dead stalks of Japanese Knotweed in an urban parking lot

  • Get to know a few plants intimately

Experienced bioregional herbalists caution beginner herbalists against trying to learn a 100-plant materia medica, and instead encourage them to get to know a handful of plants intimately, especially the plants growing in abundance right around them. More is not always better!  If you’re interested in getting to know an herb from a far-away land, consider growing it if you can, or visit it in a botanical garden, to start to get to know it before you start working with it.

As herbalist Michael Moore famously said, “If you only end up with ten or fifteen plants that you know well and trust, then you are indeed blessed. That is all a curandera uses most of the time, that is most of what a good Chinese herbalist needs… and that is the number of plants I imagine traditional healers have mostly relied on for fifty thousand years… You don’t need a whole bunch of different plant medicines… You just need to know the ones you gather and know them intimately.”

Working with a small handful of sustainable herbal allies can still result in a powerful and effective herbal practice. Sometimes less is more!

  • Build your bioregional materia medica around the needs of your community

When thinking about what herbs you might want to include in your bioregional materia medica, take the ideas we’ve already discussed into consideration, like abundance, sustainability, and so on. But also start thinking about the needs of your immediate community and start matching herbal actions with the conditions you most often see. Choose plants with multiple actions, which of course pretty much all plants have.  Also think about menstruums to use, for instance making more oxymels and vinegars if alcohol isn’t as popular in your bioregion or community.  The beauty of bioregional herbalism is that the local landscape often so beautifully provides for prevalent diseases. The perfect example here is the northeast is the anti-spirochete action of Japanese Knotweed, in the land of Lyme Disease.  If you suddenly couldn’t access herbs from local herb shops or online suppliers, would you confidently be able to treat most health conditions with the herbs in your bioregional materia medica? That’s the idea here…the ultimate form of “medicine security” to compliment the idea of “food security” so commonly spoken of in the sustainability and local food movements. This is how we build community resilience through bioregional herbalism.

Want to learn more about bioregional herbalism? Our 2025 From the Roots Up Apprenticeships are now OPEN for registration!

In these hands-on, in-person, experiential classes we dig deep and learn sustainable wildcrafting skills, build our home apothecaries and nurture relationships with our locally abundant medicinal plants.

Learn More & Register Here!

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) growing beneath a Lilac bush in my garden

Jade Alicandro

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