Usnea: The Wild Antibiotic

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I had received am email earlier this week from a prepper and survivalist website discussing usnea. Now, I had never heard of it before, so I was intrigued and decided to do my own investigating into the plant's history and medicinal usages.

What Is Usnea?

Characteristics of usnea

• Comes in a variety of colors including white, red or black. But mainly a pale-grayish green.
• Appearance similar to tree moss or Spanish Moss.
• Often grows on dead or dying trees
• Will not survive in polluted areas
• Has anti-fungal properties
• Hairy like appearance
• Grows in wet climates

I know I do not live in a rain forest or in the Pacific Northwest, but there are some places here in Michigan that are classified as wetlands. So I am hoping those will be the best place for me to search for this plant.

Distinguishing Between Usnea and Spanish Moss

• Usnea- white core
• Spanish Moss- black core
  To find out if a plant is actually usnea, pull apart the outer sheath of its main stem and look for a white thread; which will be elastic/rubbery when wet.

Spanish Moss- does NOT have flowers or blooms
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Uses For Usnea

According to WebMD usnea is a lichen* that will grow on trees and has multiple uses:

• Weight loss
• Pain relief
• Fever control
• Wound healing-potential analgesic properties when applied to skin
• For bronchial coughs and to make phlegm easier to discharge
• Decrease inflammation
• Indigestion
• Survival fire starter- when dry is extremely flammable

• *Definition of lichen, "simple slow-growing plant, forms a low crustlike, leaflike, or branching growth on rocks, walls, and trees." Source Oxford Dictionary

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Usnea has flowers and blooms

Precautions

• Do not use if pregnant
• Do not use if suffering from liver conditions
• Do not use for more than two to three weeks continuously
• Can cause abdominal issues

For more information on how to prepare usnea.
For the medicinal use the plant body is used.

Making Usnea Extract

I found a great, and easy, recipe for making usnea extract. So simple that I plan on hopefully finding some at 900-acre state hunting land and making my own. Plus the creek running at the edge of my back property line has many dead, almost dead and downed trees, it is a fairly quiet area that no cars go near (hence, hopeful to find usnea there because it is not polluted) and of course, a very wet area on the creek bank.

As I was searching for recipes, I came across quite a few and they are all the basically the same. So I thought I'd share the recipe here.

Ingredients:

• Enough usnea to fill a quart size glass container
• 100% proof Vodka of your choosing

Fill glass quart container so usnea is not tightly full of over-crammed. Add vodka to cover the plant. Let sit in a darkened area in the air-tight glass container for about six weeks.
Strain off liquid (alcohol) and discard plant. Color of liquid should be a brown-orange.
It's recommended to store prepared extract in a brown bottle.

Here is one of the complete recipes for you to check out if interested.

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