Sunburn treatment with Midwest native plants

Sunburn treatment with Midwest native plants

Walking through the woods and along the edges of the crop fields surrounding my home, I often think about the uses of plants that I grow in my backyard. My curiosity began in childhood when a friend of mine told me that spotted jewelweed was the best remedy for poison ivy. I didn’t spend another summer waiting for my itchy, weepy rash, to dry up. My poison ivy blisters were dried by the sap from the leaves and stems of the plant within days.

This success is due to my continuing interest in botany and foraging, as well as home remedies. It is easy to see how the wild could provide cures for common ailments. There wasn’t always an emergency room right next door.

Sunburn can be treated with wild peach, wild rose, and prickly pear trees. Find out where to find these plants, and how to prepare them for sunburn relief.

Prickly Pear

The cooling and astringent properties of the inner core of prickly fruit pads and fruits are similar to aloe. These qualities can be helpful in skin healing and pain relief.

Where can I find prickly pear? The colonies of prickly pear grow in sunny, south-facing locations on disturbed soils and rocky soils. In southern Ohio, there are colonies of prickly pears in the counties bordering Lake Erie’s western shore. It can be found in Allegheny County, western Pennsylvania.

When can you harvest prickly pear? When the pear pads are firm and green, you can harvest them during the growing season. When the fruit is brightly colored and succulent, it’s best to harvest them before they begin to fall back in late autumn. To harvest prickly pear, you should wear leather gloves. The fruit and pads are covered with small and large spines that can stick to your skin. You should also store your harvest in a paper bag, rather than a cloth.

How to use prickly pear to treat sunburn? Remove the spines from the prickly fruit or pear pad and gently peel off the outer skin. Cover the sunburned skin with a cool, damp cloth.

Wild Rose

The astringent properties of wild rose petals and leaves make them ideal for topical application to burns, wet and weepy skin rashes, and wounds.

Where can I find wild roses? Wild roses can often be found in disturbed soils near water bodies and woodland edges.

When can I harvest wild rose bushes? Only harvest wild rose flowers from healthy plants during summer. The blossoms can be trimmed with pruning shears or scissors. You can harvest their leaves at any point during the growing season. You can use them fresh or dried to make a topical shampoo.

How to treat sunburn with wild rose? Rose petals can be combined with calendula flowers in a vinegar infusion to soothe sunburns, burns in the kitchen and poison ivy rashes.

You’ll need 2 cups raw apple cider vinegar, 4 tablespoons fresh rose petals, dry or fresh, 2 tablespoons dried or fresh calendula flowers.

Mix all ingredients in a large jar. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for at least two weeks. The mixture should be strained and stored in the fridge for up to 6 months. You can use the infusion to soothe sunburns, as a skin soak or wash for burns.

Wild Peach

You can use the flowers, leaves, and immature branches of wild peach trees to make a topically applied wash to soothe burns, treat insect bites, and dry wet wounds.

Where can I find wild peach trees? Wild peach trees are found along the trails and at the edges of woodlots. Wild peach trees may also be remnants from old orchards and homesteads.

When can you harvest wild peaches? Wild peach leaves, flowers and young twigs must be picked in the middle of spring and dried or used fresh for future use. The fruit can still be harvested in the fall, as it ripens in summer.

How to treat sunburn with wild peach? To soothe burns or rashes, you can use peach petals, leaves and twigs to make a vinegar-infused tea.

You’ll need 1 part chopped fresh leaves, flowers, and twigs, 2 parts raw apple cider vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a large jar. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for at least two weeks. The mixture can be strained and stored in the fridge for up to 6 months. You can use the infusion to treat sunburns, skin rashes, and insect bites.