Invasive Plant Medicine: The Ecological Benefits and Healing Abilities of Invasives

Finally a book that extoles the virtues of those 'scary invasives' that have gotten such a bad rap!I love plants! I love native & non-native plants. I love herbs. And, I too considered certain plants weeds (even some native plants can be weedy). Finally a book that explains that a plant can be useful regardless of where it came from. All plants were put on this earth for a reason. I'm glad someone finally put it in a book that these 'invasive' plants have a reason to be valued and not always criticized. I will never look at bindweed the same way ever again!

We need as many plants as we can encourage in these times. Plants have always traveled by way of bird, wind, water and animals. The universities have been sold a bill of goods by the likes of DOW/Monsanto to eradicate the "invaders" at all cost even and they are getting rich off the old school, white conservationist frame of mind in attempting to restore ecology to some imaginary date in time. This book is essential for all plant nerds, herbalists, beekeepers and old guard conservationists who are slow to recover from their chemical dependency to kill the "foreigners". The plants, even the most aggressive and unruly are 1000 times more ecologically "friendly" than a Prius or any other "green" commodity

I read half through the book and i must say that this is worthwhile reading.I live in Australia and here the same war on bush invaders is fought since, I think 30 years or so. That way political leaders can tell that they are doing something for the environment, they create employment and keep environmentalists busy pulling out weeds, without ever touching the real problems. There are always weeds who are targeted to be eradicated, but none of them disappeared, they thrive.My own observations tell that the sprayed weed dies, sort of, everything around that weed dies really and the next year the blackberry grows back.There is only one method I can accept for herbicide use: scrap and paint, were only minimal amounts are used and only one plant is targeted(3drops), unfortunately this is not mentioned in the book.In the book I would like to see the chapter on herbicides expanded, especially on glyphosphate. He dismisses too the intentionally spread of weeds like cotoneaster and privet through plant nurseries. I guess, the spreading of thousands of plants through nurseries can attack even a sane ecosystems.He is very short on were not to forage for weeds, I would like to see this expanded, which residues could be in the soil and how long they persist.Further there are quite some plants which are invasive but neither edible nor medicinals nor otherwise useful. Cotoneaster and privet for example - what could be done with those?

I have worked both as a pesticide applicator targeting exotic and invasive plant species and (currently) as an organic farmer. While this book is too skewed towards one side of the "invasive debate" to represent a reconciliation of all concerns, I would say that there isn't anything coming from the other side that takes Timothy Scott's issues into account. Invasive Plant Medicine is an important book no matter who you are: it may reaffirm your commitment to appreciating all plants for who they are, where they are, and what they do, or it may at least inform you about another side of the invasive species debate in a way to help make more considerate decisions. Read the book with a grain of salt (I do not think all of the arguments are completely watertight) and at least consider - it may yet prove important in helping us make hard ecological decisions.

This book is a must-read for herbalists. For too long have we treated incoming plants as "illegal aliens". Instead we should be getting to know them and their medicinal and edible uses. Even the infamous Kudzu, the "plant that ate the south" can be eaten, used as medicine, and as bio-fuel. New plants often take hold because eco-systems have been compromised by pollution and over development, making them sick. The new arrivals often flourish until balance is restored. With this book you will learn about the newest plants in your bio-region, use them for food and medicine, and celebrate them!

The book is filled with excellent, informative and useful information. I blame God for spreading the plants that just happen provide the medicine needed for plagues like Lyme two or three years before the plague hits, but they blame the deep ecological wisdom of the earth. It's a nice planet, as slightly radioactive molten balls of rock and metal go: with an astonishingly beautiful crust, but it does have a habit of causing mass extinctions, and it's future prospects are very poor (solar meltdown), so I'd rather place my faith in an infinitely intelligent God.With that minor carping out of the way, if you are interested in herbs, want useful information, and a good laugh at the painful follies of modern ecology, which is in bed with herbicide companies spending millions of dollars to exterminate valuable plants, get this book. It's going on my permanent, do not lend, shelf.

It's good to know some constructive uses for invasive plants which otherwise would just bum me out. Several of us in my wild food instructor training class, as well as our instructors, are enjoying and learning from this book.

Just what I needed to become friends with bindweed! I will never again rant against an invasive weed.

Dieses Buch ist ein sehr wichtiger Beitrag die Zusammenhänge von Pflanzen, Menschen und Mutter Erde neu zu überdenken. Der Autor erklärt gut und verständlich, warum es keinen Sinn macht die Vegetation in „gute = heimische” und „böse = invasive, fremde” Pflanzen zu unterteilen. In einem Ökosystem ist alles auf wundersame Weise miteinander verbunden und hilft sich gegenseitig.Das Vorwort zu diesem Buch, das es leider nur auf Englisch gibt, stammt von Stephen Harrod Buhner, dem berühmten Experten für Pflanzen- und Heilkräutermedizin. Ich habe alle Bücher von ihm die auf Deutsch erschienen sind in meiner Bibliothek, „Pflanzliche Antibiotika”, „Pflanzliche Virenkiller” und „Die heilende Seele der Pflanzen”. Super tolle, genial Werke!„Invasive Plant Medicine” von Timothy Lee Scott bekommt fünf Sterne von mir, das Buch ist auf dem gleichen Level wie Buhner!

i'm half way through it's already proven very good!lots of scientific and money accounts of the craziness around invasivecomparaison with racism, nazism and more, justified!a very very important book, citation of Masanobu Fukuoka, and not just one! 3 in just 1 chapter! that's a sign of dee understanding!a few discrepancies there and then, but tiny.account of the evil doing of Monsanto, DuPont, Dow and so on.Part 2 on the intelligence of PlantsPart 3 on specific InvasiveArtemisia, barberry, bindweed, blackberry, dandelion, english ivy, garlic mustard, japanese honeysuckle, knotweed, knapweed, kudzu, bittersweet, plantain, loosestrife, reed, russian olive, reed, scotch broom, siberian elm, tamarisk, thistle, tree of heaven, white mulberry, wild mustard, wild rosefor info about wild plant, read world authority Francois Couplanfor specific about invasive read very expensive 3 volumes George Ducerf (in french)a must read is Masanobu FukuokaStephen Buhner i lovePermaculture obviously, Scott mentions it.Jeremy Narby, Terence McKeena, Lynn Margulis, James Lovelock, Goethe, Sheldrake, Antoine Bechamp, Lamarck, Dale Pendell, Eduardo Kohn, Ivan Illich, etc.....i keep highlighting stuff in this book, which is usually a good sign

WOW! I LOVE this book! I am forever changed