Should someone give you a “dandelion look” in Newfoundland, they’d be giving you a hard, bold stare. How that gesture relates to the plant may be in the weed’s cocky approach to colonization. As a stowaway aboard ships from Europe, the dandelion quickly put down roots in these shores and others (it’s the number one weed in Canada). And though it may be the bane of the modern gardener, it has traditionally been regarded as a beneficial and health-promoting plant.

Dandelion greens were a welcome source of fresh food after a long winter in Newfoundland. For many people, eating dandelions combined a celebration of spring with the promotion of good health. The renowned physician, Wilfred Grenfell, recommended dandelions for nutrition. The greens would be cooked and eaten as a pot herb until cabbage and turnip tops were available. In fact, dandelion leaves pack a greater nutritional punch than many other dark green vegetables- they are high in iron, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, vitamin A, and are a moderate source of vitamins D and various B vitamins, as well as zinc, silicon, magnesium, manganese, and copper.

The entire plant is edible. The young leaves can be added to a salad, the roots cooked and eaten as a vegetable or dried and roasted to produce a coffee substitute. And many local recipe books include a version of dandelion wine made from the yellow flowers.

The second part of its latin name, Taraxacum officinale, means that the plant has medicinal uses. It’s most commom form as a herbal medicine is as a mild tea made from dried leaves and roots. The plant has been used to treat joint, liver, gallbladder and kidney problems. Its reputation for stimulating the latter earned it the French name pissenfit, or piss-a-bed as it is sometimes called in Newfoundland. Other traditional uses have been as a blood purifier (it was the main ingredient in “Dr. Wilson’s Herbine” tonic sold in Newfoundland in the early 20th century), a mild laxative, and in treating ailments as varied as eczema and cancer. One local folk cure for warts recommended applying the milk or latex from dandelions.

Today, dandelion is used to treat poor digestion, constipation, water retention, and liver diseases such as hepatitis. Experimentally, the roots have proven to be a weak antibiotic against yeast infections.

Hiking the headland trails and open woodland paths of this area will bring you in the company of one of the most popular plants of Newfoundland folk remedies. The story of juniper in Newfoundland is a long one. Yet, like its sprawling and interlacing branches, it is also sometimes confusing. That’s because in Newfoundland both the juniper shrub and the larch, or tamarack, tree are commonly referred to as ‘juniper’. Juniper beer, for example, is actually a fermented beverage made from tamarack boughs. Remedies for coughs and colds using juniper roots, and treatments for sores and frostbite using juniper bark salve in fact refer to the larch tree. Nevertheless, the juniper shrub holds a special place in traditional Newfoundland therapies. The berries, bark, branches and roots have been steeped, boiled and macerated into scores of self-care concoctions.

Both the common (J. communis) and trailing (J. horizontalis) junipers occur in this area. Preferring dry conditions and exposed habitats, the shrubs are characterized by their reclining mat-like growth, sharp-tipped leaves and scaly bark. The needles of common juniper are arranged in whorls of three while those of trailing juniper are scale-like and overlapping. The edible berries, which take two to three years to mature to a blue-black hue with a whitish bloom, are actually seed cones. Their resinous flavour reveals juniper as a member of the pine family. A source of food for birds, the berries are commercially used to flavour gin.

Traditional use in Newfoundland included juniper berry tea as a treatment for kidney and bladder ailments. Teas prepared from the berry and, to lesser extent, from juniper branches were used as diuretics and to settle stomach disorders. Sugared juniper tea in a baby’s bottle was recommended for infant colic, while drinking juniper tea was also a treatment for diarrhoea. One folk remedy advised chewing the inner bark of juniper tops to relieve a sore mouth.

The notion that tonics were needed in the spring to rid the body of ‘bad blood’ took root in Newfoundland in the 19th century. Homemade recipes commonly included a sugared tea made from boiling the inner bark of juniper together with other medicinal plants.