[whitecrow]

A working knowledge of herbalism is a valuable thing to pick up. It should involve some familiarity with medicinal herbs, both growing wild in your area and the ways they come packaged and prepared; plus a good knowledge of local and regional flora, including edible and poisonous plants.

You don't have to take an expensive course (though it never hurts), and you don't have to be a botanist or a druid. One thing you do need is a good selection of herbal books. I never yet have seen one that has adequate illustrations for positive identification, which is one of the reasons for owning a shelf of them. The small manual put out by the Smithsonian is one of the best in this regard.

Unfortunately, herbals tend to repeat the same information over and over. This shows that many writers don't do their own research, and in this way some mistakes have been passed on for generations. Therefore, I suggest taking all information in herbal manuals with a grain of salt, and proceed cautiously. Gain experience gradually, especially in working with medicinal herbs.

A perfect example of this concerns the calendula flower. This lovely healing blossom looks like a large, sunny yellow marigold, and in fact in some parts of England it is called the pot marigold. This confusion of names led some writer at some dim point in the past to state that the marigold and the calendula are the same plant, the same flower. I've seen this in any number of books, and I've even seen it on packages of calendula creams and sprays. In fact, calendula officinalis, though superficially similar to tagetes (marigold), is not even related. Nevertheless, the mistake marches on through the decades, unstoppable.

When I want to take a quick look at a new herbal, first I look at the illustrations. Are they clear enough to definitely identify the plant? If you're wildcrafting, you'd better be sure. Poison hemlock and sweet cicely look a lot alike! Then, even before checking out the individual plant descriptions, I look at the article on calendula. If the book says that it's the same as the marigold, I know that everything that writer says is questionable because he didn't do honest research (Are you reading this, Jack Richason, MD)?. He's not really an herbalist, but a writer making a buck from herbalism.

Then I look at the article on cannabis. This tells me a lot about the attitude of the writer. I don't want books that extol the entheogenic virtues of every poisonous plant on every hillside, but neither to I want someone who's seen "Reefer Madness" too many times. If there's a well-rounded and objective article on this plant, plus accurate identification of calendula/marigold AND exceptionally clear pictures, then maybe I'll buy the book.