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April 17, 2025 14 mins
Today, we're diving into a topic that might just change the way you look at your lawn forever. Forget those perfectly manicured, weed-free ideals for a moment, because we're about to explore a fascinating and often overlooked plant that's likely growing right under your feet: Henbit.

And while it's often categorized as a "weed" (might be a conspiracy👀), I'm here to tell you that this unassuming little plant is a powerhouse of uses and benefits, a true hidden gem of the plant world. Foraging in your own backyard can be a sustainable and incredibly rewarding way to connect with nature and discover the edible and medicinal treasures that surround us.

So, scientifically known as Lamium amplexicaule, this member of the mint family is easily recognizable by its square stems (a hallmark of mints), its rounded, scalloped leaves that clasp the stem (hence the name "amplexicaule" meaning "clasping the stem"), and its delicate purple, tubular flowers that often appear in early spring.

But beyond its identification, what makes Henbit so interesting and valuable? Let's explore some of its amazing uses and benefits:1. A Nutritional Powerhouse:
  • Don't underestimate the nutritional punch packed by these little leaves and flowers. Henbit is a good source of vitamins, particularly Vitamin C and some B vitamins. It also contains minerals like iron and potassium. Incorporating small amounts of Henbit into your diet can be a fantastic way to boost your nutrient intake, especially during those early spring months when fresh greens might be scarce.  
2. A Gentle Edible:
  • Both the leaves and the flowers of Henbit are edible. They have a mild, slightly sweet and peppery flavor with a hint of mint. This makes them a versatile addition to various dishes.
  • How to Use:
    • Salads: Add the tender young leaves and flowers to fresh green salads for a subtle flavor boost and visual appeal.
    • Pesto: Blend the leaves with nuts, garlic, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese for a unique and slightly peppery pesto.
    • Smoothies: Toss a handful of leaves into your smoothies for added nutrients without a strong overpowering taste.  
    • Garnish: The delicate purple flowers make a beautiful and edible garnish for soups, salads, and even desserts.
    • Lightly Cooked: You can also lightly sauté or steam the leaves like other leafy greens.
    Caution: As with any wild edible, start with small amounts to see how your body reacts. Ensure proper identification and avoid harvesting from areas that may have been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides or are near heavy traffic.
3. Traditional Medicinal Uses (and modern understanding):
  • Historically, Henbit has been used in traditional medicine for various ailments. While modern scientific research is still ongoing, some of these traditional uses align with the plant's known properties.
    • Anti-inflammatory properties: Some traditional uses suggest it can help with inflammation, potentially due to the presence of certain compounds.  
    • Astringent properties: It has been used as a mild astringent, potentially helpful for minor cuts or skin irritations.  
    • Diuretic properties: Some traditions indicate its use as a mild diuretic.
    • Expectorant properties: It has been used to help relieve congestion.
  • Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before using any wild plant for medicinal purposes.  
Now that we've explored the amazing potential of Henbit, let's zoom out and talk about the broader concept of foraging in your own backyard. Foraging can be an incredibly enriching experience, connecting you with the natural world, providing fresh and nutritious food, and even offering potential natural remedies.But it's crucial to approach it with respect, caution, and knowledge.Your yard, even if it seems ordinary, can be a surprising source of edible and useful plants beyond Henbit. Here are some key principles and tips for safe and responsible backyard foraging:1. Positive Identification is Paramount:
  • This is the single most important rule of foraging. Never eat anything you cannot 100% positively identify. There are many poisonous plants that can resemble edible ones. Invest in good field guides specific to your region and cross-reference information from multiple reliable sources.  
    • Invest in Field Guides: Get books with clear photos and detailed descriptions of local plants.
    • Use Reputable Online Resources: Websites and apps from trusted foraging experts and botanical organizations can be helpful, but always verify with physical guides.
  • Learn Key Identifying Features: Pay attention to leaf shape, stem structure, flower color and shape, smell, and habitat.  
  • When in Doubt, Throw it Out: If you have any uncertain
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Okay, So I went and got my notebook because taking notes,
and so hindbit is one of the ones. I do
have some notes already in my notebook because fun story.
You know, I've wanted to do a series on herbs
and stuff like this for years now. I just didn't

(00:23):
have the bandwidth. You know, I'm only one person, and
it for a long long time, blog posts and articles
were the only mode of content that I really did.
And so I started with what I thought was dead nettle, right,
and I got like halfway through, because you know, I

(00:47):
do like I like the videos, like videography. So I
was harvesting all this dead nettle in my front yard
and making these beautifully asked the pleasing videos with it,
and piecing them all together, and then started like so
I got the video together, and then I went back

(01:08):
into my computer and started researching the dead nettle, only
to find out that what I had actually harvested was
a ton of hind bit. So what the hell do
we do with hm bit?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Do you want to do?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
You want to go over your notes first, or well.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's not a whole lot of notes, it's so I've
got it's just bullet pointless it's anti rheumatic, which I'm
gonna have to google that word. I think it's it
has to do with arthritis. But anyway, it's also a laxative,
a stimulant, induces sweating, reduces fever, heals wounds with a poultice.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
So it aids that.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
It comes in early spring and late winter. It's high
in iron fiber, anti accidents, and you want to, uh,
if you put it in a dehydrator in one hundred
and ten degrees, is how you preserve that? That's all
I got? Yes, yes, okay, so a lot of that

(02:13):
adorable Your tone is calling me adorable.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
No, not at all.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
No, I am adorable.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
I mean, yeah, you absolutely are, but.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
On this subject, I'm not like that's cute. No, really,
you have a lot of good information.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
So, uh, anti rheumatic does mean arthritis and osteo arthritis
reduce the inflammation, pain and joint damage. So I was
I have I know?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Thanks? Yeah anyway, okay.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
So, yes, it is good for inducing sweating and breaking fevers.
Poultice you had mentioned those those are good for skin
hilt and like if you have a bum knee that's
really hurting, like your joint. You can make it pull
die and put on there. But you can also take

(03:13):
the dried herb and infuse like olive oil or some
other type of oil with it and use that to
make sabs. So, but the sabs would be good for.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Like the achy joints and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
What kind of oil.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
You can use, like any really any oil.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Olive oil is good, Almond, all sunflower, all, jehoba all
you know, I mean just really any kind that you
that you want to.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Use, jehoba like jojoba.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yes, jojoba did.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
I always think it's so funny, like we there's certain
words and you pronounced so differently, and I don't know
who's right, but we know what we're talking about, so
I guess it does. Yeah, colonula and hope you know.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
And that is the thing is, h we're probably both right.
It just depends on like where in the world you
are that you're pronounced.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Probably or we could both be wrong.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
We could both be very wrong. We'd have to look
it up, look at the the deep origins of the
word and where it originated. And there's there's a word
for that. It's not anthropology, but it's similar.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, I'd probably mispronounce that one, Okay. So you can
infuse all with it and you can use that like
to massage onto a key joints and muscles, or you
can mix it with bees wax like a couple like

(05:15):
say a table spoon of ALL to a teaspoon of
bees wax melted bees wax, and it would make like
a sev So that would have a little more like
stick in power, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, and then go ahead. I was just gonna say
that it has obviously the lookalikes of dead nettle and
stinging nettle, which isn't too big of a problem for real, right, Like,
I mean, some lookalike issues would occur between certain plants

(05:53):
that I can't think of an example, but if you
have a lookalike plant that one's medicinal and one's toxic,
then that's where a problem would arise. But with hinbit,
the lookalikes are dead nettle and stinging nettle, and both
of the well, I guess stinging nettle you want to

(06:14):
cook that first, So there's a little bit of hues
with the lookalike situation.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, So with sting and netle, you would want to
make sure like when you harvest it, make sure you
wear gloves and long sleeves because it will actually really
irritate your skin if you touch it unprotected, so you would,
but it's still edible and medicinal, so it's not like
it's going to be toxic if you get it and

(06:42):
eat it thinking that it's something else, so to consume
it is safe, but you would definitely know stinging netle
if you touch it, so always wear gloves when you
do sting in netle. But dead nettle is not that way,

(07:02):
and it looks it's the one that looks most like
hn bit because it grows about the same hots it grew,
it emerges at the same time of the year, and
it also has tiny little purple flowers on it, just
like hind bit does. But it's not toxic. It's medicinal
and it's edible, and most of the uses for both

(07:25):
of those overlaps. So I mean, even if you were
to harvest dead nettle instead of hind bit thinking that
you were gonna, you know, use it for this particular thing,
you would probably still get in the ballpark with it.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
So especially with like the joint pain and stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Cool, Yeah, dead nettle is not as scary as it sounds.
I don't know why they give these things these scary names.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
I don't know either, because what they.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Say that you should use the Latin names when referring
to plants and herbs and whatnot, because for lots of reasons,
it takes away the guesswork, and then what we call
dead nettle here or hindit may have a completely different
name in another area just because of the culture and whatnot,

(08:22):
and so it's always good. But I mean, like, that's
so hard. That's that makes something that's hard that much
more difficult. You know. I made a joke episode or
two ago about how we're learning a different language when
it comes to herbology, but like to literally have to
learn a new language to learn it just makes it

(08:43):
that much more complicated.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, because a lot of it's in like Latin
and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
So yeah, which, of course, you know again probably builds
upon itself the deeper you get into their ear because
you know, if you Spanish and English and French are
all Latin based, So if you know so, for fluent
English speakers, Spanish and French are the easiest language is

(09:12):
to learn because there's a lot of overlap a lot
of patterns and whatnot. We were talking about this yesterday,
me and the kids. I couldn't imagine trying to learn
something that. Because I've been trying to, I've got like
a let's see, what is my streak, a three hundred
and fifty eight day streak on du lingo for learning Spanish.

(09:35):
So I've been like really working very hard, and I
don't do just delingo. I do my de lingo every day,
but then I also self study other things and have
a notebook and just like I'll pull it out and
start doing things. But it's so hard. It's so hard,
and we're surrounded by Spanish speakers all the time. I
couldn't imagine. I have a friend that's trying to learn Vietnamese.

(09:56):
I'm like, are you crazy?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Right? It is?

Speaker 4 (10:01):
It really is hard because I was trying to learn
Spanish and I have people in my life who speak Spanish.
That's the crazy thing. Like, because you know, like work
in the concession stand, there's a couple of the moms
that are Spanish and they speak Spanish. And I was like,
I really and a lot of you know, like people

(10:22):
that go to clements, there's a lot of.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
People who speak.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Spanish that go to clements, and I was like, I
want to learn Spanish, you know, because I'm trying to
keep my brain working and all of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
And it's like, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going
to learn another language.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
And it was so hard, and even having people in
my life that I could bounce it off of, I
got so confused and like, my Southern draw mouth does
not form work that way. My mouth literally gets tired
trying to enunciate and pronounce.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
The words the way that I'm supposed to. And I'm like,
oh my gosh, I get it. I get it.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Okay, coming back, coming back to hindbit, Let's see the
notes I got on are the notes that Jim and.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
I gave me and Google.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
So are the roots edible? Because this says that the
leaves and stems are edible and offer a mild, slightly sweet,
and sometimes peppery flavor, but they also don't have a
whole lot of roots to them, so there's just like
little spinley hair things, so it's not really anything that
you have to consider. You can eat them raw, throw

(11:40):
them in salads, but it says that some people find
the little hairs on the leaves a bit off putting.
It can be cooked like spinacher kale, added to soups,
stews and stir fries, added to smoothies, or juiced. It's
a source of vitamins and minerals, including iron, calcium, vitamins, ACE,

(12:05):
and K, so like really nutritionally dense, which is awesome
because a lot of stuff doesn't have that many things.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, that's got a lot of vittomans in it. Mm hm.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Uh. Fevers and body aches, anti inflammatory, anti rheumatic, so
good for joints, inflammation, relieves pain and stiffness. Claims have
been made that it's energy boosting but also anxiety reducing,
which is interesting because a lot of things that are

(12:39):
energy boosting are like irritate your anxiety as well. But
this claim that it's energy boosting but also anxiety reducing,
which sounds amazing to most of us. I'm sure that
would be us if it could reduce my anxiety but
not make me tired, right, because like, yeah, a lot

(13:07):
of herbs like camomeal and all the herbs that are
made for or not made for anxiety but used for
anxiety are really a like a sedative. Yeah, Yeah, so
if I could like chill out but still be functionable
and not ready to take a nap, that would be good.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, to check that out. I will test it. I
will put this theory to the test. Awesome, I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Everybody else should do the same. Well, I'm not going
to tell anybody to use anything that their doctor has
not prescribed them, right. Disclaimer, disclaimer all the places.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, we're not telling you to do anything. You do
you No, this is just to your doctor first. This
is for entertainment purposes, is only yes, all right, anything else,
that's all. Yeah, that's all I got to Oh, it
can be a laxative, so if you have too much

(14:07):
of it, you know, unless you're you're needing that effect.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, that's aware mention. After we're like, oh, it's so awesome.
It can do all these things. Well, be careful though,
Be careful though.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, all right, okay, all right,
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