Somewhere I heard about ‘fireweed’,
and my imagination immediately jumped to a vision of a weed with flowers that
were bright yellow and red, with long slender petals that stuck up in the air
and ‘flickered’ in the breeze.
The real fireweed isn’t like that.
The flowers are a solid purple or pink that don’t look a thing like flames. It
gets its name because it is probably the first plant to establish itself in an
area that has been burnt.
Since then, I have also discovered
that the parts of the plant that occur above ground can be used as a natural
medicine. Would it surprise you to hear that fireweed has been used to treat
fevers, inflammation and infections? It is also used to treat pain and
swelling, tumors, wounds and an enlarged prostate. Certain forms of it have
been used as an astringent and as a tonic.
And it’s edible! New shoots can be
cooked like asparagus, while young flowers and leaves can be eaten raw. (They
are slightly sweet and mildly astringent.) Older stems can be peeled and
enjoyed as a snack. Older leaves and the flowers can be cooked as a vegetable,
and will both flavor and thicken soups, stews, and the like.
If that’s not enough, you can stuff
a doll or start a fire with the stuff contained within the seed pods. The seed
pods are about 3 inches long, and when they pop open (with or without any help
from you), the minuscule seeds are released, each with its own feathery tuft
that allows it to ride the breeze to a new home. I’ve also read the adjective ‘cotton-like’
in reference to the seeds and tufts, which made me think it could be used to
stuff a child’s doll. Or, use the stuff inside the seed pods as kindling to
make a fire.
I like the concept of a fireweed. I
think I might use the term for a plant on some other planet in one of my
stories. Only I think my version of fireweed will have those red and yellow
flickering flowers. And maybe those flowers are ghost-pepper hot!
Now, that strikes me as a real
fireweed, in all ways.
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