Edible and Medicinal Plants at Eagle’s Nest Camp
This is a brief guide to some of the edible and medicinal plants that fill the woods and
fields around Eagle’s Nest Camp. Remember: the first rule of eating edible plans is –
if
you are not 100% sure that the plant you are about to eat is edible, DO NOT EAT IT! For
more information about edible plants, take Indian Lore or Explorers in 2009.
Edibles, medicinals and other helpful plants:
- Arrow leaf (also called Arrow Root): Root harvested as a tuber for starch and protein. Food at the Fishing Pond.
- Birch: Bark used as parchment materials and to make birch beer. Found on the Cabin 9 trail and near the climbing wall.
- Cattail: Root harvested from fall to spring as a tuber for starch and protein. Leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. Flowers are edible and pollen can be used as a flour. Found in the Fishing Pond.
- Black Cherry: Fruit can be used to make jelly. Bark can be used to make a cough medicine. One of the best furniture and cabinet woods. Found on the Sun Lodge trail.
- Red Clover: Flowers are edible and sweet. Found on Cabin 7 field, by the lake and other fields around camp.
- Flowering Dogwood: Root bark used by Native American people to make red dye. The inner bark was also used to treat diarrhea and fevers.
- Eastern Hemlock: Yellow green needles used by Native American people to make vitamin C rich tea. Branches can be used to start a fire when wood is wet. Found throughout the woods and along the Quad at Eagle’s Nest.
- Honeysuckle: Sweet, edible flowers found along the lakes and creek banks at camp.
- Indian Cucumber: Roots are edible and refreshing. Found on the trail to the lake.
- Indian Pipe: Sap useful as an eye medicine. Found on the Cabin 9 trail.
- Jewel Weed: Used in making an anti-itch remedy for poison ivy rashes and bee stings. The flower can also be used to make a red dye like henna. Found near the creeks at Eagle’s Nest.
- Lady Slipper: Powdered root used in curing toothache. Found in the woods near Indian Village.
- Eastern White Pine: Needles can be boiled to make a vitamin C rich tea. Found throughout the woods at Eagle’s Nest.
- Pipsissewa: Leaf tea used by many Native American peoples for urinary, kidney and stomach problems. Found in the woods near the Fishing Lake.
- Sassafras: Roots can be used to make tea and root beer. One of the first plants to be exported from the New World. Bark used to make dyes. 3 different leaf shapes (mitten, three-lobed and oblong). Found near the New Lodge.
