Golden Alexanders, Zizia aurea, is a golden flower of May and June. This plant is potentially toxic and eating the roots has caused vomiting and other adverse reactions. Be careful with members of the parsley family. Both the flowers and stalk are edible, the flowers can be prepared like broccoli. It has been used medicinally by both American Indians and in western herbal medicine. Golden Alexander or Zizia was used for headaches, fever, hysteria, epilepsy, chorea, leucorrhea, backaches and increasing sexual drive in men.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry.

Golden Alexanders Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Boericke, William, Materia Medica, 1901.

Deane, Green. Edible Flowers: Part Sixteen. Eat the Weeds. Web

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 125-126

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 614

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 226-227

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.