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Wild Medicinal Plants
 
There are many who believe that every plant was put here for a reason and not only that but it is put where it is needed. There are many plants available in this world that are not only edible but have medicinal value. Of course there are also those that are medicinal when properly used that are not edible so please be sure to do your research about any medicinal plant before consuming in any way.
One of the plants that I have eaten and actually enjoyed the flavor was Astragulas. This desert plant has beautiful yellow flowers and small round/oval leaves that grow along a stem and look almost fern like. This is an herb that has had a lot of research done pointing to it's many benefits and it grows wild in the Utah desert.
More details about Astragulas Root can be found here: http://www.herbalextractsplus.com/astragalus-root.cfm
 
   

Treatments for insect bites

I recently enjoyed a trip up to the high Uintas in northern Utah. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes enjoyed me while on the trip. I did not think about the remedies around me at the time and in fact did not know about one all over the ground while there (common plantain) but now that I am home and starting to feel the effects of the bites I decided to research it because I know there are remedies out in my back yard. I found a great bit of info from a site that talked about wild plants and mosquito bites and so I tried some. I knew of globe mallow and so tried some of that which I found out in my garden. I did not think about common mallow however and had forgotten about the benefits of yellow dock.
 
Since the bites woke me up at 3am I decided to test some out and see which worked. I applied a chewed poultice of common mallow (from my garden) to the bites on one side of my body and a poultice of yellow dock leaves (from my garden) to the other side of my body. Fortunately for you I have plenty of bites to test on. It seems that both plants worked as described. The itching has receded and I'll be going back to bed now. I'm glad I have the plants in my back yard but a bit sad I did not bring home any of the common plantain that was so readily available around me on the trip to the Uintas.