Yellow Dock
Image by Jan Kops - www.BioLib.de, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18901222
Close your eyes and picture yourself walking on the side of a green wood, or a sunshine filled meadow on a hot day. The insects are humming loudly and you can hear a little creek swishing by. You smell the various wildflowers and the green humid scent of hot meadow grasses baking in the sun. A tall, shiny green plant with branches of seeds catches your attention as you run your hands through the wildflowers while you walk.
This plant reaches almost to your waist. It's top is covered in rusty colored seeds that easily pull off as you leisurely tug your fingers through them. It's a calming motion and combined with the aromatic scents of the other plants your immune system strengthens and your cortisol levels get lower. You haven't even learned the name of the herb yet, but it's medicine is already soothing you.
Yellow Dock
Rumex Crispus Spp.
One of the first plants I turn to for GI support. It is a sun loving plant that thrives in poor soil. The fresh raw root should never be used, but the dried root as a tea or tincture is a beautiful remedy for moistening and relaxing tissues. Yellow Dock is astrigent, sour, and a little bitter. If you are looking for something that is a good liver support, which has a reputation for also supporting hormone health (including clearing up acne), look no further than this beautiful "weed".
We have an area on the farm that we carefully harvest yellow dock roots from each year. I dig them out with a garlic digging fork. The tap root can be very long, similar to burdock but this plant sticks even tighter than burdock to the ground. If you have ever tried to "weed" it out of your garden, even a baby yellow dock, (Rumex Crispus) will be too hard to pull with your hands.
This is our first and best clue to getting to understand this plants strengths, the tenacity of the root.
This clue can represent; Times in our lives when we are overwhelmed to the point where our current conditions actually start to become chronic. Yellow Dock can gently budge our constitution into a better direction with it's helpful, widely available root containing anthroquinones, tannins, resin and iron, as well as a bitter's helpful properties.
Traditionally used in cases of constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, anemia, chronic skin conditions and sluggish digestion. Yellow Dock can have an underlying support for the hormones by way of supporting the liver. Traditionally known as a liver support and cleansing herb.
