9, ‘Harvesting’; notes on harvesting specific herbs are given in the third section, ‘The Herbal Harvesting Year’.
Let us go through the guidelines for good practice in wildcrafting. These guidelines are important because they ensure that we are wildcrafting without causing harm to the environment and to the plant populations that we seek to work with. They also ensure that the plants that we gather will be of good quality, be safe to use as medicines and will not be wasted. As herbal practitioners, we also need to ensure that our actions will not cause conflict or disharmony with other people who connect with the land from which we are gathering.
Here in the United Kingdom the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) protects wild plants. The Act states that it is illegal to dig up or remove a plant (including algae, lichens, and fungi) from the land on which it is growing without the permission of the land owner. Small-scale responsible foraging of above-ground parts can be done along public rights of way or on land where there is free public access.
A green lane in my foraging territory.
We should never collect plants that are endangered or at-risk. It is our responsibility to make sure we know which species these are if we plan to forage for medicinal plants. Wherever we live in the world, we should get hold of a good field guide and do some research on the rare or protected plants that we may come across. In the United Kingdom, Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) lists the species that are protected by law. It is also worth noting that the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) maintains an up-to-date GB Red List showing all plants that are scarce or protected. This is really useful, because not all rare plants are protected by law, but they may be so scarce that they should not be gathered.
A Wiltshire river.
As well as individual species being protected, some land areas are protected under statutory designations. Here in the United Kingdom we have various levels of protection, including ‘Sites of Special Scientific Interest’, ‘National Nature Reserves’ and ‘Local Nature Reserves’, for example. On land with a conservation designation, it is not permitted to pick any plant at all.
A good guideline to remember is that if you are out walking and you come across a plant that looks unusual and is not growing in abundance, then do not pick it under any circumstances, not even to identify it later at home. It is much more responsible to carefully photograph it, including a reference scale in the shot, or to sketch it. Get into the habit of carrying a botanical hand lens with you and examine the intricate details of plants that you find. Make some notes about its features, including the arrangement of its leaves on the stems, their shape, whether they are hairy or not, the shape of the stem, any scent and the appearance of the flowers or seed heads, if they are present. These less damaging recording methods should help you to identify it later on. I should also add that if you are photographing the unusual plant, take great care not to expose it by removing surrounding vegetation in order to get a better shot. This may make it more vulnerable to grazing or wind damage.
Even when gathering species that we know are common, it is important to gather only from plant populations that are abundant, and we should never collect more than 5% of the plants that are present. We should choose plants that are in the middle of the size range for a particular population, leaving the largest and smallest members of the community. Leaving the strongest plants to reproduce ensures that we are allowing the best plants to be perpetuated and leaving the smallest ones allows the younger plants to grow and mature.
Safety and quality issues also shape foraging guidelines. It makes sense to avoid gathering plants from heavily polluted areas such as former industrial sites. If you see plants with stunted growth or affected by die-back, do a bit of research about the land-use history of the area concerned. If your foraging territory includes popular dog-walking areas, you will also need to take care. Eggs from the roundworm parasite (Toxicara) can survive in the soil for many months, long after the dog faeces itself has been washed away or removed.
A sunken lane in Somerset.
If you are gathering from stream-or lakesides, be aware of the water quality. If the water looks stagnant, polluted or affected by algal bloom, be suspicious about what lies upstream from where you are. For example, if you are gathering downstream from intensive livestock-rearing holdings, you could be gathering plants affected by the effluent and the chemical agricultural inputs that may have been used on the animals. Plants growing in rural hedgerows or field margins in intensively managed arable areas may have been subjected to applications of herbicides or pesticides. Orchards are especially likely to have been heavily treated with pesticides, unless they are under organic management. While cemeteries and graveyards can be really good for learning about plant identification, they are not a suitable place from which to gather medicines. The soil, and therefore the plants, in graveyards is more likely to be contaminated by toxic substances, including lead and arsenic. I also believe that these locations are unsuitable energetically.
The view across the North Dorset downs.
In general, I stick to gathering from along very quiet rural lanes, bridle paths or drove roads, riversides, woodlands or from agricultural areas that I know to be under organic management. I recommend that you get really familiar with your local area. Walk the footpaths and green lanes regularly. Learn what species are present, and observe how the land is managed. Get to know your local organic land-owners, if you can. You may find that they may be very supportive of you foraging medicinal plants from their land, especially if you share the fruit of your labours with them. Aim to build up a mental map of your foraging territory. Make friends with the plants that are growing there. Watch them through their whole life cycle, and see how the population ebbs and flows in different years. If you live in an urban area, walk through and get to know your local green spaces and parks. Do not feel constrained from gathering medicines because you live in a city. The quality of plants gathered from green spaces in cities can be excellent, provided that they are not growing near a very busy road or in an area that is treated with chemicals. You can always supplement your foraging activities by making regular trips to one or two rural areas that you ‘adopt’ and really get to know. Your foraging territory does not have to be where you actually live.
Regardless of where you choose to forage, try not to encourage too much foraging pressure in one place. I sometimes see people suggesting that sharing exact locations of certain plant populations on apps or social media groups would be a good idea. I find this a bit worrying, because it could draw unsustainable numbers of foragers to particular places, especially if there are scarcer plants growing there. Ideally, each of us will naturally find our own preferred foraging sites, fully understanding that these sites will never be exclusive to us and that others have every right to forage there too. As we get to know our foraging locations, we each build a strong connection with the plants that grow there, and a sense of respect and responsibility naturally arises. This connection cannot be built up if we forage here and there based on map pins posted on social media.
It is crucial to always make sure that you positively identify the plant or plants that you are gathering. It is a terrible waste to gather a basket of plants only to return home to your identification guide and discover that what you gathered is not what you thought it was. Misidentification is also potentially dangerous. Some medicinal plants have leaves that are rather similar to species that are toxic. Young Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) leaves, which are toxic, can easily be confused with young Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) leaves, for example. One distinction is that Comfrey has a smooth outline to
