Blue Skullcap Tincture.

Look closely at a skullcap flower and you will see where the name comes from: a small, helmet-shaped calyx cupping each blue-violet bloom. From a few steps back the plant is easy to overlook, a leggy roadside weed of wet ditches and stream banks that only draws the eye when it flowers in midsummer.

It belongs to the mint family, with the square stems to prove it, though it keeps none of the family's fragrance. Nineteenth-century American herbalists leaned on skullcap more than almost any other native herb of its kind, and it has held its place in Western herbal practice ever since. Skullcap is also one of the more commonly adulterated herbs in the trade, often cut with the unrelated germander, so this tincture is made from the fresh flowering herb, tinctured within hours of harvest to preserve what dried material tends to lose. It is a deep amber-green, faintly grassy on the tongue.

Details

• Botanical name: Scutellaria lateriflora
• Made from the fresh flowering herb, tinctured within hours of harvest
• Color and taste: deep amber-green, faintly grassy

How to use

Take twenty to thirty drops as needed, as part of a quiet evening ritual. If you are pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before use. A plain little roadside plant with a long, quiet history.