Bind Weed: A Gardeners Friend or Foe?

Bindweed!

Most Gardeners and Farmers Want to Poison It With Chemicals.

Recently I read an article in a small town paper on bindweed. Bindweed is a member of the Convolvulaceae bindweed family or morning glory family which includes about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species. Although well written and documented from the normal viewpoint, there were some important items overlooked. Bindweed, of which there are various species, (black, blue, etc.) has a rather impressive list of benefits.

The control issue centered around poison chemicals. Most of us hear them called, and referred to, as herbicides. “Herbicide” leaves us with a better feeling about what we’re doing to ourselves and our environment than when they’re called what they really are: byproducts of chemical warfare. Bindweed, unlike Roundup, other herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and other chemical poisons, does not cause or contribute to cancer, heart disease, respiratory problems and other detriments to health. According to The Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning International in Wichita, KS, bindweed has shown considerable promise as a treatment and preventative for breast cancer, ovarian cancer with other cancers and diseases under investigation at this time.

According to Joseph Cocannouer, in his out of print, classic book “Weeds, Guardians of the Soil”, when dried and baled, bindweed has more nutritional benefit as an animal feed than alfalfa and any of the forage/feed grasses. A good friend who raises cattle told me his cattle will walk right past a bale of alfalfa to eat bindweed. Statistics state the average alfalfa yield is 3.35 tons per acre. As stated in the small town paper article, which quoted from the 1975 book “Weeds of the Pacific Northwest” by Helen M. Gilkey, “the yield per acre can reach five tons per acre”, some sources say it can be as high as 7 tons per acre. Even the mad, run amuck, GMO scientists at Monsanto can’t match that.

Where humans are concerned, bindweed, as a tincture, is used to treat headaches and sore eyes. As a topically applied tea, to treat abscesses, herpes lesions, carbuncles, syphilitic sores, wounds and skin ulcers. As a poultice to draw purulent matter (pus, etc.) out of abscess and boils. The leaves, when crushed and made into a mash, can be applied to a wound to stop bleeding.

If you get insect bites, including spiders, while working in your garden crush some bindweed leaves and apply the mash to the affected area for instant relief. It’s been a busy summer and total time off amounted to three days kayak/camping on the Snake River. During the trip I got multiple chigger bites. When I got home I tried various commercial remedies and some herbals. All gave me temporary relief. When I got caught up, I remembered the bindweed. I picked a small handful, chewed it to a paste and rubbed it on the red welts. Almost immediately the itch and stinging were gone and never returned.

A few days later, a friend tripped and fell down in a graveled parking lot. She broke her right thumb and received a large puncture wound in her right elbow from the gravel. She told me the elbow hurt worse than the thumb and what the doctor had given her only helped temporarily. I told her to try chewing some bindweed and putting it on the wound. The next time I talked to her she told me, “Even though I looked like an old cow chewing its cud, the bindweed did the trick.”

Taken internally as a tea made from the leaves, it can help reduce profuse menstruation, increase the flow of bile, be used as a laxative and helpful for weight loss. A tea made from the flowers is used to reduce fever and as a laxative.

I learned the following while working in the garden and pulling bindweed. If the stem consistently breaks off at ground level, your soil is too dry. You should get at least a small amount of white root if the soil is damp enough, deep enough to support healthy, desirable garden plant growth. Sometimes you can get as much as three feet of root. Since the roots can reach great depths, they have the ability to bring minerals up from the subsoil for the benefit of your desired plants.

I’m not advocating the cultivation of bindweed, I’m on 24/7 bindweed patrol, but if it’s there a person may as well know how to reap the benefits as opposed to raising the blood pressure by being mad, stressing out or doing other physical damage by breathing or ingesting chemicals.

I assume the statement, at the end of the article in the small town paper, “run a gloved hand along the graceful grass stem to pull the vine (referring to bindweed) free” is to avoid contamination from herbicides. Good idea!

While writing this I decided to try a cup of bindweed tea. Not bad. If I have a choice between bindweed and Roundup ® or other poisons in my garden, I’ll take bindweed. I’ll pull it by hand, check to see if the soil is wet enough and maybe take some into the house for a cup of tea when the garden work is finished.