Names
Shoshone:
gahn
English: Bitterroot – “First-Root”
Scientific: Lewisia rediviva
Zone
Upper Foothills
Harvest Time
- The first harvested plant in spring where the leaves are presented long before the showy pink flowers.
Primary Uses
- Use as thickener in soups from dried root
Secondary Uses
- Heart medicine as gravy or tea
- Blood purifier
- Increase lactation
Cautions
- None listed
Active Principle(s)
- None listed
Video Description of Plant
Click play on the video to learn more about this plant.
Notes
Processing Prep
- Peel the red bark off the white roots. Dry then powder it. Use as thickener in soups.
- Rehydrate dried roots and mash-up as a jelly-like thickener
Medicinal Uses
- Healing: Root gravy healing to digestive tract
- Heart: Root tea for heart trouble
- Immune: Root gravy believed to strengthen the digestive system – where immunity begins
- Itching: Root tea drunk
- Intestinal Health: Functions as a prebiotic for healthy gut
- Liver: Root tea to strengthen the liver
- Lungs: Root tea for diaphragm health
- Old People’s Medicine: Gravy improves digestion
- Pneumonia: Root tea
- Skin: Root tea blood purifies for skin eruptions