Entry Detail


spicebush


Entry Type:  
Species
Scientific Name:  
Common Name:  
spicebush
Myaamia Name:  
wiinaahkatwi
Harvest Seasons:  
Spring
Habitats:  
Beech-Oak-Maple Mixed Mesophytic, Dry Prairie grasslands, Conifer Swamp some deciduous domts.

Media 
Media not available.
Myaamia Archival Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Archival Data Comments
Lamb, E.W., Shultz, L.W. 1964 Related Info

"Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) was also used as a remedy for aches and sluggishness much as our vitamin pills at the present time--not quite so costly, however".

Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895 Description

"winaxkátwi spicebush, known in the south west as spicewood, a shrub with yellow flowers, tree is four feet high".

Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895 Use - Medicinal

The stems of spicebush were used to make tea. "The Indians cut the stems into sticks or small pieces pour hot water over them and drink the infusion as spicewood tea".

Rafert, S. 1989 Use - Medicinal/Food

Used in tea as a tonic.  "My mother used to use it, besides making spicebush tea, she used it to parboil older game like an old 'coon or an old woodchuck. To parboil 'em in it, it tenderized 'em. Or at least we thought it did."

Olds, J., Olds, D. and D. Tippman 1999 Use - Medicinal

Spicebush root tea was used "for everything you know".

Rafert, S. 1989 Description

"Spicebush is a small bush that grows about six feet tall . . . It has a red berry on it in the fall of the year and in the spring it has a small yellow-clustered bloom. It’s a blackish-looking plant--shrub--and it has an aromic smell to it. You break off a piece of it and chew on it, or just smell it, it has a real spicy smell to it. Decidedly spice".

Gonella, M.P 2003-2006 Use - Medicinal/Food

Fruits were gathered and dried for seasonsing. Young leaves used for tea.

Gonella, M.P 2003-2006 Horticultural Info

Pick berries when they are red in fall.

Rafert, S. 1989 Use - Food

"They [the Myaamia] took to coffee like a duck to water when it became introduced to them. But in their earlier days, their primitive days, they didn't know coffee. The only drink they had of that type would have been sassafras or spicebush".

Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900 Use - Medicinal

Tea was made using spicebush.

Botanical Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
Gleason, H.A. and Cronquist, A. 1991 Habitat 

Occurs in moist, rich woods in eastern and western Myaamia lands.

Related Sources  
No sources entered.