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Hair-cap moss.

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Want a really effective diuretic? Look at the green stuff under your feet.

Hair-cap moss (Polytrichum juniperinum) is a very common moss, up here, and while I haven't gotten around to taking pics of it yet, I will, this summer, never fear.

It's a pretty little moss, deep dark green, with brownish-red sporeheads that look like strange small tall hats on long stalks that rise above the moss proper. Cool plant. Lemmesee if I can find a pic - yes, lots.

King's says it's a strong diuretic, especially in dropsies - dropsy being edema, and in old books that often means the edema that comes with heart failure.
See? Petersen confirms: "especially cardiac dropsy".
The Eclectics also say that it's good for irritation of the bladder, and for urinary stones.

Cook says you shouldn't overdo it, though.

And J. King says that it doesn't always work. If what Cook says is true ("relaxes the kidneys to produce copious amounts of water") then it wouldn't work on those with a "cool" liver (as per Michael Moore's energetics (.pdf here)) - those folks already have very watery urine.

Comments

I'm a first time blogger, but I've enjoyed what I've read so far regarding the natural herbal teas and such. I learned a lot in just the few minutes of my coming to this site. I think I'm hooked !

Thanks, and welcome to the world of blogs!
This is an unusual blog: I usually write things in advance, and aim for information rather than navel-gazing. The rants are a plus for me (the readership just has to put up with them), because I can't really put them up elsewhere.

So stay tuned for more of the same, same place, same time, next week!

This is a great herbal agent but no herbal supplier that I have been able to find on the internet has any of it!! Not even the suppliers with hundreds of herbs in their available stock! Outside of landscaping suppliers (specializing in mosses-a company in oregon offers 5 square feet of the living hair-cap moss-at $89 plus shipping!!) do you know of any herbal supplier with this extremely valuable herb available???

Sorry no - I don't need suppliers for this, as I can get all I want from local forests.
You have used this moss, then?

Yes and what the old eclectics have to say is largely valid (I got a small amount from a wreath making supply company selling several specially harvested moss varieties from Oregon); PS: if you would gather a pound of this moss from the local forests I will pay you $50 (plus shipping) for it-please let me know if you would!!!