Surprising Salvia

Posted on July 16, 2024July 15, 2024 by vlaw759

For the first time, I have three salvia (SAL-vee-uh) plants in my yard, chosen by another, planted for their blooms. I wanted to know more. And what I learned at KidsHealth and Australia’s Alcohol and Drug Foundation surprised me!

You may also know salvia as diviner’s sage, magic mint, maria pastora, sally-d, seer’s sage, and shepherdess’s herb.

Please note: what follows is readily available information. I’m absolutely not recommending any particular use of salvia.

Psychedelic Salvia

It’s an herb in the mint family that can cause brief, intense psychedelic experiences. Salvinorin A is the active ingredient in salvia divinorum. Native to the mountains of southern Mexico, salvia has a long history of use by Indigenous shamans there.

Salvinorin A affects opioid receptors in the brain. This differs from other hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, which affect the brain’s levels of serotonin. As a psychedelic drug, it can affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time, and emotions. Psychedelics can cause a person to hallucinate, seeing or hearing things that do not exist or appear distorted.

As a drug, salvia comes as fresh green plant leaves, dried shredded leaves, or a liquid extract. Traditionally, users chewed the fresh salvia leaves or drank the extract, but now people take the drug in a variety of ways. A user can also smoke the dried leaves in a bong or mixed with tobacco as a cigarette. For sublingual absorption, a user holds the fresh leaves under the tongue.

Salvia’s effects come on quickly, sometimes in less than a minute. According to anecdotal user reports, when smoked the effects of salvia begin in 15 to 60 seconds and last for about 15 to 90 minutes. When placed under the tongue, the effects begin in around 10 to 20 minutes and last for about 30 to 120 minutes.

Savlia’s Side Effects

Psychoactive drugs affect a person’s mental state and can have varied effects depending on a person’s mood or mindset (often called the ‘set’) and/or the environment they are in (the ‘setting’). Salvia’s effects on the mind can range from mild to intense. They may be frightening, depending on how strong a dose of the drug someone takes.

(Factors affecting the effects of psychedelic drugs is too big a topic to include here, but info is readily available online.)

Common short-term effects include

Hallucinations and changes in visual perception
Uncontrolled laughter
Mood and emotional swings
Difficulty concentrating
Sense of detachment from self and reality (not being able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imaginary)
Dizziness and lightheadedness
Lack of coordination
Slurred speech
Amnesia
Loss of energy (higher doses can cause sedation)
Pain relief
Confusion
Delusion
Feelings of impending doom
Increased appreciation of music
Uncontrolled body movements
Anxiety
Restlessness
Increased body temperature
Time distortion

Some studies suggest that, over time, salvia use may contribute to dysphoria, which is characterized by feelings of depression, discontent, and restlessness.

Smoking salvia over a long period of time can lead to breathing trouble and other health problems.

Because the drug has such dramatic psychological effects, it can seriously impair coordination and perceptions of reality; people under its influence expose themselves to a substantial risk of injury or accidental death.

Salvia and the Law

In many areas, salvia is perfectly legal and widely available. Stores sell it as a tincture or tea in some countries, or even as commercially extracted products.

However, salvia is illegal in a number of foreign countries and in many American states. Salvia is a schedule 9 drug. Federal and state laws provide penalties for possessing, using, making, selling, importing or exporting, or driving under the influence of salvia. Possession or use of salvia in states where it is illegal is punishable by fines and jail time.

This last bit gave me an adrenaline rush. But common sense soon surfaced: a garden center wasn’t likely to be selling salvia divinorum. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to find out just what kind of salvia I have. As best I can determine, it is salvia coerulea.

Salvia’s Other Uses

Most salvias are considered non-toxic to people of any age. Many ornamental varieties have a noxious taste, but there are no known toxic qualities when consumed by humans. (In large quantities, salvia can be toxic to dogs, causing symptoms like vomiting, depression, and breathing difficulties.) So, although ornamental salvias are not poisonous, they’re nothing you’d want to put in soup.

The edible salvias are usually referred to as sage, like the Salvia officinalis used to flavor roasted chicken and turkey. In fact, there are several edible varieties that are used in everyday seasonings.

Sage’s leaves are very pungent when raw, which is why most chefs recommend cooking them before eating. However, the flowers are reputed to have a delicate taste that makes a nice garnish in salads or sauces. They are great for the pollinators too!

According to WebMD, sage might help with chemical imbalances in the brain that cause problems with memory and thinking skills. It might also change how the body uses insulin and sugar.

People commonly use sage for memory and thinking skills, high cholesterol, and symptoms of menopause. Some people also use it for pain after surgery or to treat lung cancer, sore throat, sunburn, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.

Bottom Line: Know your salvia and use accordingly!

1:56 AM

Posted on April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 by vlaw759

And it hit me: I hadn’t written a blog! Where did the days go since Friday?

Fauna

Well, I spent a lot of time birdwatching, and was rewarded with titmice, chickadees, bluebirds, goldfinches, purple finches, house finches, grackles, bluejays, cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, mourning doves, white throat sparrows, wrens, brown thrashers, and—of course—robins.

Today for the first time ever, I saw a pair of Eastern towhees! They’re usually very shy, but the males sing and show off their tails in flashy displays to attract mates in the spring. Remind you of any characters or real people you may have encountered?

I had a chance to enjoy the acrobatics of Stanley and Ollie at the bird feeder. They’re better than a professional circus troupe, but without the spandex and sequins! (For more about their antics, check out an earlier blog I wrote about the behaviors and habits of squirrels in my yard and elsewhere.)

And a couple of days ago I spotted a five-foot long black racer coiled in a pussywillow tree behind my house. (Black racers are very common in the southern US, but they are not venomous or dangerous. Random fact — these snakes can vibrate their tails, making a sound very similar to a rattlesnake.)

Flora

Visiting yard plants is always interesting this time of year (sometimes a bit confusing). I found that a purple baptisia planted by the front door has migrated to a side garden near the back—clearly the work of fairies.

I have a single rose bud opening (although my neighbors’ roses are hanging heavy).

The rhododendron has its first bloom, and azaleas are going wild. Irises are so heavy-headed that they are resting on nearby azaleas. My peonies aren’t as far along as they were three years ago, but they’re showing lots of buds for the future.

The patio pots have flourishing mint, chives, oregano, thyme, sage, and—surprisingly—dill and parsley that wintered over.

I’ve walked in the park and along nature trails, finding wild rhododendron, a.k.a. early azaleas. Also spotted were Virginia bluebells, wood ferns, phlox, pink lady slippers, cinquefoil, dandelions, and creeping buttercup.

Fiction

Then, too, there were writing tasks. COG Literary Magazine is preparing to print “Pawpaw” and I had to approve the page proof. “Running on About My Mother’s Body” received a second acceptance, so I needed to respond to that and offer a replacement piece. I even wrote the first draft of “Pandemic.”

And I’m involved with two critique groups on zoom and Google hang-out, both new to me.

Fraternizing

All of that doesn’t even touch on communications with family and friends.

I’ll try to get out of myself for Friday!

Bottom line for writers: Life happens.

Plants: A Topic That Could Take Over the World

Posted on June 4, 2019May 20, 2019 by vlaw759

you are one third daffodil — [Source: Amazon]

During my nature writing class, I started looking more closely at plants and animals—mostly animals, at least in the beginning. It’s only to be expected, I guess, given that animals are animate. They do things, and seem to have personalities. They often communicate vocally. But the factoid above eventually led me to explore plants a bit more. In the lists below, I’ve italicized those facts that might be of particular interest to mystery and other writers.

The Big Picture: A few facts to put plants in perspective

Over 300,000 plant species have been identified so far
Plants are the only organisms that make their own food in a process called photosynthesis. They turn carbon dioxide into food while cleaning the air.
More than 20% of the world’s oxygen supply is produced by the Amazon Rainforest.
Bad news: 80% of the earth’s original forests have been cleared or destroyed.
Only 10% of the world’s plant-rich areas are protected.
Of the plant species that have been studied, 68% are in danger of going extinct.
More than half of all plant species are native to just one country.
Although the earth has more than 80,000 species of edible plants, humans use only around 2000 different plants as food. Indeed, 90% of the foods humans eat come from just 30 plants
Nutrition doesn’t factor into the choice of plants chosen for mass production.
Some 70,000 plant species are used for medicine, both traditional medicine and modern pharmaceuticals. Only 1% of rainforest plants have been studied for medicinal potential.
Plant species are going extinct about 5,000X faster than they would without human intervention.
More than 85% of plant life is found in the ocean.

Trees

Trees are the longest-living organisms on earth.
Ginkgo biloba is one of the oldest living tree species, dating back to 250 million ears ago. The Dawn redwood dates back 150 million years.
The world’s oldest-growing tree is a bristlecone pine.
Dendrochronology is the science of dating a tree’s age b its rings.
The world’s tallest-growing tree is the coastal redwood, which is mostly along the Pacific Coast of California.
A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.
Tree resin, when fossilized, becomes amber—sometimes containing bits of plant or animal
Quinine—one of the most important drugs out there—is obtained from the dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America.
Oak trees don’t produce acorns till they are 50 years old.
Lightning strikes oak trees more than any other variety.
The African Baobab tree can store 1,000 to 120,000 liters of water in its trunk.
Evaporation from a large oak or beech tree is from 10 to 25 gallons in 24 hours.
Brazil is named after a tree.
The average-sized tree can provide enough wood to make 170,000 pencils.
The first type of aspirin, painkiller and fever reducer, came from the bark of a willow tree.
Baseball bats are made from hickory while cricket bats are from willow.

Flowers

During the 1600s, tulips in Holland were worth more than gold.
In 1634, a collector paid 1,000 pounds of cheese, four oxen, eight pigs, 12 sheep, a bed, and a suit of clothes for single bulb of the Viceroy tulip.
Tulips can continue to grow as much as an inch a day after being cut.
Some 600 species of plants are carnivorous. For example, the Venus Flytrap ingests various small insects.
One carnivorous plant in the Philippines can devour a full-grown rat alive.
Torenia, a shade-loving annual, is called a wishbone flower because they have tiny wishbone-shaped stamens.
Poinsettias were brought to the U.S. from Mexico in 1825 by the first U.S. minister to Mexico, Joel Poinsett.
The largest unbranched flower in the world is the titan arum, which can reach 15 feet tall. It’s common name is corpse flower because in bloom, it smells like rotting meat. The smell atracts flies for pollination.
All parts of the flowering shrub oleander are poisonous. Eating leaves can cause gastrointestinal, cardiac, and central nervous system problems and possibly death.
Iris means “rainbow” in Greek, and Iris is the goddess of the rainbow in mythology. Wormwood (artemesia) was named for the goddess Artemis. Milkweed (Asclepias) was named for the god Asclepius, and Hebe after the Greek goddess Hebe.
May l is the festival of the lily-of-the-valley. People give bouquets of them to each other, wishing them health and happiness.
Snapdragon flowers resemble dragons, and if you squeeze the sides, the dragon’s mouth will appear to open and close.
Each head of a sunflower is composed of hundreds of tiny flowers which ripen to become the seeds. Ditto for daisies, yarrow, goldenrod, asters, coreopsis, and bachelor’s buttons.
No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially
Peaches, pears, apricots, quinces, strawberries, cherries, almonds, and apples are members of the rose family.
Asparagus is a member of the lily family, which also includes onions, leeks, and garlic.

Vegetables and Fruits

Tomato juice is the official state drink of Ohio.
The tomato family includes tobacco, peppers, eggplant, and deadly nightshade

From a botanical standpoint, avocados, pumpkins, cucumbers, and tomatoes are fruits rather than vegetables. Avocados have more calories than any other fruit, 167 per hundred grams.
Rhubarb, on the other hand, is a vegetable.
Strawberries have about 200 seeds. It’s the only fruit that carries its seeds on the outside.
Archaeological evidence indicates that grapes were grown to make win about 8,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (Iraq, today) but the first records of how to make wine were set down by Egyptians about 5,000 years ago.
Pineapples were so named by explorers because they look like pine cones with flesh like an apple.
Pineapples are the only edible member of the bromeliad family of flowering plants. Technically, a pineapple is a berry.

Potatoes were first cultivated in Peru about 7,000 years ago. Today residents of Peru eat one of more than 4,000 varieties of potatoes with almost every meal.
Tomatoes and potatoes share 92% of their DNA.
Cranberries, Concord grapes, and blueberries are native to North America.
Small pockets of air in cranberries, when fresh, cause them to bounce and float in water. Apples, being 25% air, also float. (I’m not sure how this is reconciled with being 84% water, but that is a mystery to solve later.)
Water makes up 84% of a raw apple, 96% of a raw cucumber and 91% of cabbage..
The difference between nectarines and peaches is the fuzzy skin.
Cutting onions releases sulfuric gasses, bringing tears to the eyes. According to the National Onion Association, chilling the onion and cutting the root end last reduces this problem.
Onions contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings, and relieves the itch of athletes foot.
Eating lots of onions can make you sleepy because it can act as a sedative.

Banana is the Arabic word for fingers.
A cluster of bananas is known of as a hand and consists of 10-20 bananas which are known as fingers.
Bananas contain a natural chemical that makes people feel happy.
Peanuts are not nuts. They are legumes, related to beans and lentils. They have more protein niacin, folate, and phytosterols than any nut.
Peanuts are used as an ingredient in dynamite.
Arrowroot powder (also known as cassava flour) is a thickening agent valued for being tasteless, colorless, and gluten-free.
Arrowroot is also an antidote for poisoned arrows—so if you are going to be shot with a poisoned arrow, be sure it’s in the kitchen.
One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of pop.
Apples, onions, and potatoes actually have the same effect on taste buds. They are differentiated by smell.

rosemary plant — [Source: Bonnie Plants]

Herbs and Spices

Rosemary repels mosquitos.
Saffron is harvested from the stigmas of a type of fall-blooming crocus.
Garlic mustard is a member of the mustard family, not garlic. It is highly invasive herb.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
Vanilla flavoring comes from the pod of an orchid.
Turmeric, rosemary, thyme all can be used to treat dandruff.
Thyme, rosemary, sage, lavender, and marjoram all help relieve cold symptoms and congestion.
Several herbs are traditionally used as abortifacients.
Any good herbal will give guidance on using herbs for home remedies.

Miscellaneous

Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew marijuana (cannabis sativa) on their plantations.
Bamboo—the largest of the grasses—is highly invasive. Some types grow as much as 3 feet a day.
Plants at the bottom of watery areas, such as swamps, can eventually turn into coal.
Caffeine acts as a pesticide in a coffee plant.
There are more than 1000 chemicals in coffee and at least 19 of them are carcinogenic.
Chemicals released by freshly-cut grass is highly effective to relieve stress
England’s Alnwick Garden has The Poison Garden, filled with plants that can kill you.
All teas (black, green, and white) come from the same plant, only the processing makes them different.
The first product to have a barcode was Wrigley’s gum.

So, how closely are we related to plants? Are we really 1/3 daffodil?

No. In actuality, humans and daffodils share 35% of our DNA.
Humans and mustard grass share 15% of their DNA.
Humans and bananas share 50% of DNA.
Humans have 3 billion DNA pairs; the Norway Spruce has nearly 20 billion.
Even onions have more DNA than humans.
Tomatoes have 7000 more genes than humans.

All of the bits and pieces gathered together above are just the tip of the iceberg. Writers, choose a plant—any plant—and work it into your plot, setting, or character traits. You’ll love it!

So You Think You’re Literate?

Posted on August 29, 2017August 26, 2017 by vlaw759

You think you’re literate?

So did I until I delved into Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison. She’s a long-standing advocate of buying local and cooking seasonal produce. Although I bought the book in 2014, and have cooked from it since then, I only recently started reading it.

If you are interested in botany, gardening, cooking and/or eating, this book’s for you!

The twelve chapters, each devoted to one vegetable family, includes essays, photos, and recipes. Just reading the chapter headings is an education—at least, it was for me.

Chapter One: The Carrot Family. I once felt rather smug, knowing that Queen Anne’s lace is related to carrots. Ha! In this 43-page chapter, Madison introduces the rest of the family: angelica, anise, asafetida, caraway, celery, celery root, chervil, cilantro and coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, lovage, osha, parsley, parsley root, parsnips, and wild carrot. Although I’ve grown dill and parsley for decades, I never tumbled to the relationship.

In Chapter Two: The Mint Family, I learned that most staples of my herb garden are relatives: basil, lavender, marjoram, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme.

Thyme, sage, rosemary, oregano, and mint are all perennial for me. The problem with mint is that it won’t stay potted! It’s been known to actually cross the patio.

Thanks to this chapter, I now know that anise hyssop, bee balm, catmint, chia seeds, horehound, lemon balm, perilla, and savory are in this family as well. Unfortunately, my hyssop isn’t anise hyssop. Only bees want to sample it.

I won’t go in depth with chapter contents, for that wouldn’t do the book justice. I’ll just mention selections. Chapter Three: The Sunflower Family, surprised me by including lettuces and tarragon. The Knotweed Family includes a favorite from childhood, rhubarb. The Cabbage Family includes kale, mustard, radishes, and turnips. Tuscan Kale with Anchovy-Garlic Dressing is a recent favorite.

By Chapter Six: The Nightshade Family, I stopped being surprised that eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco might turn up together—along with miscellaneous other relatives. Chapter Seven (The Goosefoot and Amaranth Families) deals with edible weeds, leaves, and seeds.

Chapter Eight includes the recipes for chives, onions, asparagus, leeks, shallots, etc. Of course there are chapters on squashes, melons, and gourds—which includes cucumbers; grains and cereals (e.g., barley, wild rice, millet, etc.); and legumes (all sorts of beans and peas).

Chapter 12 is the last—shortest—chapter, on The Morning Glory Family. It’s shortest because the only edible member is the sweet potato.

I LOVE THIS SORT OF INFORMATION! Yes, I could get the botanicals elsewhere. But, as cookbook author Davis Tanis said, “Filled with fascinating botanical notes and inspired recipes that really explore vegetables from the the ground up—it is a pleasure to read.The writing is beautiful and the lessons are astutely down to earth.”