sage confusion

[mellowtigger]

Yesterday, I drove out to the Arboretum. I had announced it on a local Bears email list earlier in the week. Nobody said they were planning to go out too, but hopefully I didn't miss spotting someone at the main building entrance at the start time that I announced. I didn't see any Bears there or at the entrance for the other building, so I went outside and wandered around on my own for a few hours.

The trees here are beginning to turn their fall colors, so next week and the week after should be really pretty out at the Arboretum. It was my first time to visit the place, so I just roamed aimlessly to see where trails would take me. Much of the central area near the buildings was landscaped, with every plant having its own little sign identifying its scientific and common names. Sometimes the common names are useful (like "Red Baneberry" which discouraged me from tasting the pretty but highly poisonous fruit). Sometimes, though, the names are confusing.

One plant, which looked just like one that I had at home, was named Artemisia ludoviciana or "western mugwort". I'd not heard that name for it before. I thought I was growing a prairie sage, the kind used for smudging. *confusion*  When I was back home at my computer, I looked up the plant online and found that it's also called "white sagebrush". Yes, that's what I thought it was. Yes, it is used for smudging.  But looking around online some more, I find that what appears to be the proper plant for smudging is "white sage" or Salvia apiana. *more confusion*

I look up both of them in relation to smudging. Sure enough, various herbal stores online sell one or the other as their smudge sticks. I'm having no luck yet, though, finding one that explains the difference between them.  It may be that each of the plants has a different native area, and local Indians used their local plants for the same function.  I don't know, I'm just guessing.

Does anyone out there know something that can clear up my confusion on this matter?  Is it "white sage" or "white sagebrush" that is the canonical ingredient for making smudge sticks?  What is the history for these two plants?

Comments

[otterlover01.livejournal.com]

Well my friend, what i could tell you from the start is the the two genera you mantion belong to two different plant families. Artemisia belong to the Asteraceae family and Salvia belongs to the Lamniae (labiatae sensu lato, the mint family), so you may look for the morphological differences between the two families and check the ones at the Arboretum and the one at your home. Plants can be very tricky, they might look very similar in general due to evolutionary convergence but differ in the details of flower and other body parts structure. I checked on the http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch and you are right Artemisia ludoviciana seems to be the "White Sagebrush" and Salvia apiana the "White Sage". I would tend to think this last one was the one used originally by native americans since it is much more extended than the other one that tends to be only in the west. Besides, the Salvia apiana smoke is said to be slightly toxic, inducing the mental altered states that might be "necessary" for a true ritual experience, while Artemisia seems to contain oils that are toxic only to certain bacteria. Hope this is useful information for you my friend. :o) Warm hugs, Luis.

[bradferd23.livejournal.com]

In the West, it is commonly referred to as Silver Sagebrush, if I remember correctly. It has a silver or whitish cast to the upper leaves. Most of the Indians in the West used this over Big Sage Brush, Artemisia tridentata