Herb Hunting in Your Neighborhood, Part 1: Mugwort

There are several herbs that you can scout out in your own yard and around your neighborhood, if you know how to identify them!  Today we'll be taking a quick look at mugwort.  Mugwort is a very prolific and often invasive weed.  Many states are pulling it up by the roots, trying to get rid of it, so it's likely no one will mind if you take a few clippings off plants in public areas (Always seek permission first before cutting or pulling up any plant - whether it's in your neighbor's yard, a public park or the side of the road).


First up, here's a photo from my garden.  I grew this from seed purchased at a trusted seed company. My mugwort is in a raised bed with a box around it, to keep it from taking over the entire earth.  Because mugwort will do that if you let it just grow all willy-nilly.  This is it's second year (it survived a pretty brutal winter in NJ) and I've had about 3 harvests out of this bunch in total so far.  

Mugwort will reseed itself if it's allowed to flower and go to seed.  Which means you will very likely end up with some mugwort shooting up in odd places around your yard if you choose to grow it intentionally.

The good news is, you can very likely find mugwort just growing wild around your neighborhood.  A quick walk up the block from my own house found a small empty lot behind a business, literally filled with 5 foot tall mugwort plants!

It also grows around the side of the road, in almost every yard in my neighborhood and along the edges of parks.  Identifying mugwort can be somewhat tricky at first, mainly because the young plant and the mature plant leaves  (and even leaves on the same plant) can differ quite a bit. 

One good way to identify the plant, though, is by looking at the underside, which is a lighter, silvery color.

Of course, when picking plants from around your neighborhood, be aware that they could be sprayed with any number of chemicals.  Ask about what's on them from the landowner.  If in doubt, don't use the  plant for medicinal or culinary uses, but instead use for more magical uses.


When wild harvesting plants,  a good rule of thumb is to not take any whole plant if there are 3 or less plants in the area, and don't take more than 1/3 of any one plant, so as not to damage it.



For a more in-depth look at identifying mugwort, here's a video about wild harvesting mugwort in Central Park, done by Steve Mirsky of Scientific American for the Science Talk podcast.





And if you'd like to read further about how to use mugwort once you've found it, here's an article I wrote a while back.  Enjoy!


Updated to add: If you're looking for info about how to dry herbs, click here!
Check out Part 2 of this series, all about Plantain, here!

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