Weedy Plants
14
Activity 4
Summary: To learn
about plant parts and some of the human
uses of common weeds.
Materials: Student photocopies of
“What Are These Weeds Good For?”
Factsheet and Worksheet.
Location: Indoors
Time Required: 40 minutes
Background Information
Plants contain many of the nutrients that help us live healthy
lives. Plants provide us with oxygen so that we can breathe.
People and animals certainly cannot live without plants. Plants
are also used for building materials, clothes, medicine and other
products.
Many plants are sources of dyes and inks such as woad, indigo,
madder, goldenrod, beets and berries. For thousands of years
humans have relied on plants to treat illnesses. Plants are still
used today for that purpose. Many modern medicines come
from plants. For example, aspirin comes from the bark of the
willow tree and a drug used to fight malaria (quinine) also comes
from a particular tree bark.
Plants in our local area have many uses to humans, even those
we commonly call weeds. Most of the plants we refer to as weeds
are actually exotic rather than native species. In the Grand Lake
Meadows 23% of the species found are exotic species. Weeds
are useful to humans in many interesting ways and these will
be investigated in the activity.
Curriculum Links
Students can apply the
information contained in
this activity to:
102-13
identify parts of
different plants that
provide humans with
useful products, and
describe the preparation
that is required to obtain
these products and how
our supply of useful plants
is replenished.
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Activity
1. Photocopy “What Are These Weeds Good For?” Worksheet and Factsheet so that
there are enogh copies for each student.
2. Review background material and previous activity with students.
3. Distribute “What Are These Weeds Good For?” Worksheet and Factsheet to each
student.
4. The factsheet features pictures of seven plants and should be read by each student,
or together as a class.
5. Using the What Are These Weeds Good For Factsheet, students will fill in the plant
part name and use for each of the 7 weeds found in the Grand Lake Meadows on the
Worksheet. They should draw an arrow connecting the name of the plant part to the
actual plant part. If they chose the root as the plant part, then they can draw in the
roots as they imagine them. Then they will colour the illustrations.
6. Using the factsheet, the teacher will review the correct answers with the class. A
good way to review the information is to re-distribute the worksheets and have the
students correct them.
16
What Are These Weeds Good For? Factsheet
Great Burdock Arctium lappa
Oxeye Daisy
Chrysanthemum leucanthemum
Many people believe that this plant
was the inspiration for Velcro. Those
wretched burrs sure do stick!
This weed is good for:
·
·
·
·
Relieving the itch and pain of an insect
sting, with crushed fresh burdock
leaves.
Purifying blood, using the fresh or
dried roots, seeds and leaves.
Skin diseases, including acne, treated
using boiled burdock seeds.
Relieving bruises and sprains with
crushed fresh burdock leaves.
Youth have often used the daisy petals for
reciting the familiar “he loves me, he loves
me not” verse.
This weed is good for:
· The “fresh as a daisy look”. Spots and pim•
·
Great Mullein Verbascum thapsus
Stinging Nettle Urtica dioica
The three main uses for stinging nettles are in cooking, as medicine and for
cosmetic purposes.
This weed is good for:
· Natural plant dye. Nettles produce a
·
·
rich green pigment, their roots produce a deep yellow dye.
Food, in salad, soups & baked in a
casserole, using young stinging nettle
shoots and leaves.
Blood purification, and treatment of
chest and lung troubles. The leaves
and plant stems are used by homeopathic doctors.
ples can be reduced by applying juice from
the stem before bed.
Making daisy wine from the blossoms.
Tired eyes and swollen eyelids. Fresh and
dried flowers are boiled, cooled, and then
applied.
First dipped in suet and resin, mullein
stalks served as the candles and torches of
ancient kings and commoners.
This weed is good for:
·
·
·
Earaches. Mullein produces one of the
finest oil remedies for all ear complaints
(1 part fresh mullein flower, 2 parts olive
oil).
Hair dye, from the boiled blossoms, produces golden highlights.
Diseases of the lung can be treated with
the plant’s roots.
·
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Use as a plant dye; the roots produce
a red dye.
Being rich in vitamin C. Rural areas
of Europe use the young shoots in
spring drinks to purify the blood.
Earaches; bedstraw juice from the
leaves and stem takes away the pain
from an earache.
Prevents insomnia, and produces a
restful night if dried bedstraw stem is
made into a tea before sleep.
This weed is good for:
Bedstraw has a reputation as a useful
food, superior drink, and a worthwhile herbal medicine.
Bedstraw Galium aparine
·
·
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Strengthening fingernails, by drinking a cup of weak horsetail stem tea
before bedtime.
Curing plant fungal infections such as
leaf curl. A mixture of stinging nettle
and horsetail stem is boiled in water,
cooled and then sprayed on the diseased plant.
Inflamed gums, by gargling with a
boiled recipe of the horsetail plant
stem and water.
This weed is good for:
In their original form, the horsetails
would have been much larger and
covered a large part of the earth.
Field Horsetail Equisetum arvense
What Are These Weeds Good For? Factsheet
·
·
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Eating; the young leaf stalks and
leaves are edible, before the dandelion flowers. Roots from young
plants can be steamed or fried.
Dandelion wine, made from the
flowers.
Treating sickness of the liver,
kidneys, gallbladder, pancreas and
blood and for a century dandelion
was listed as the official drug of
the USA.
This weed is good for:
For over 1,000 years the dandelion
has been used as a food and medicine.
Dandelion Taraxacum officinale
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What Are These Weeds Good For? Worksheet
Great Burdock Arctium lappa
Field Horsetail Equisetum arvense
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
name of plant part
human use
human use
Great Mullein Verbascum thapsus
Oxeye Daisy
Chrysanthemum leucanthemum
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
human use
Bedstraw Galium aparine
Dandelion
Stinging Nettle
Taraxacum officinale
Urtica dioica
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
human use
name of plant part
human use
human use
name of plant part
human use