Harvesting and Preserving Late Blooming Thoroughwart

What is late blooming thoroughwart? What are the medicinal properties of late blooming thoroughwart? And how can you preserve it to use in infusions to assist with fevers and colds?

Late blooming thoroughwart (aka late boneset) is a flowering plant in the aster family which is native to North America. It was known as a popular fever and cold remedy for Native Americans. Some say its leaves and flowers make the best native cold and fever remedy around. It’s best used in an infusion, but don’t use a lot of it because it is a laxative. So, this is a tea you might sip in moderation when you have a fever or cold, but not something you’d use on a daily basis.

Identifying Late Blooming Thoroughwart

According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, “Late boneset, or late-flowering thoroughwort, is a stout native perennial whose stems and leaves usually have short hairs. The leaves are lance shaped or ovate, often angled at the base, with definite leaf stalks, tapered to a sharply pointed tip, with sharp, often coarse teeth along the margins. Leaves have 3 main veins (sometimes 5), with the ones on the sides branching from the middle vein at the base of the leaf blade. Flowerheads contain 9–15 florets. Blooms August–October.”

We have a large patch of late blooming thorougwart in our lower field near the West Chickamauga Creek. In the following video I share photos of our patch of late blooming thoroughwart and how I dehydrate it and preserve the flowers and leaves to use in an infusion.

How to Make an Infusion

You could make the infusion with either fresh or dried leaves and flowers. To make an infusion, take a tablespoon of late blooming thoroughwart leaves and flowers and put them in a tea infuser or tea strainer. Put the tea infuser in a glass jar. Add a cup of hot boiling water. Cover the jar with a tight lid. Let the mixture steep for 30-60 minutes. You could also put the leaves directly into the water and strain it at the end with a cheesecloth.