Sue Pike
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| Portsmouth Herald
I was lucky enough to be visiting Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, last week. We were having tea with Agnes, a local Greenlander, and a grandmother who had cooked us a big spread of Greenlandic and Danish cakes and cookies served with coffee or tea. The tea was fantastic; it tasted like regular black tea with a piney slightly bitter taste. Agnes said she gathered the leaves in the tundra, that the leaves were called little kayaks (because that’s what they looked like), and that this was a traditional Inuit tea; she called it “qajaasat.” I wanted to buy some in town but she said you couldn’t, you had to gather it yourself. She told me what to look for — short, stiff, evergreen leaves with brown furry undersides (the “fur” is white in young leaves). The small shrubs (less than a couple feet tall) had beautiful white flowers. She said walking through a qajaasat patch was an exercise in aromatherapy.
While out hiking over the tundra the very next day I saw something that reminded me of home — Labrador tea — a small shrub that grows in New England bogs and alpine tundra. The leaves were like tiny kayaks, stiff and leathery, with brown hairs on the underside. This was what Agnes had described. This was qujaasat! She wasn’t kidding about the smell — just brushing through a Lilliputian thicket of this stuff smelled great – a pungent scent Thoreau described as “between turpentine and strawberries. It is rather strong and penetrating, and sometimes reminds me of the peculiar scent of a bee.”
Labrador tea (Rhododendrum groenlandicum) is circumpolar – a true plant of the North with a range extending across the northern parts of North America, Greenland and Europe. The adaptations that help it survive the harsh conditions of the Arctic and alpine tundra also allow it to thrive in the lower latitude acidic bogs and peatlands of New England. The small dark, leathery leaves with rolled edges and fuzz underneath are adaptations to help retain moisture as well as staying warm. Plants typically ‘breathe’ through pores (stomata) on the underside of the leaf; the thick hairs help maintain a warmer, more humid microclimate by trapping moisture, blocking wind and evaporation, as well as holding in some warmth.
After eagerly drinking a few cups, Agnes warned me about overconsumption – she said that one dark winter day while playing cards with friends she over-imbibed and got very giggly. She said not to drink too much if you want to keep your wits about you. People have long been drinking Labrador tea without obvious ill effect; it is a favorite of the Inuit and many of the Northern Canada First Nations people. The French Canadian fur traders used Labrador tea to extend their supplies of black tea. Common names speak to this history – Hudson Bay tea and trapper’s tea. It was also used medicinally – it is high in vitamin C and supposedly helps with a wide range of disorders – from migraines to hair loss to infections. The downside is that this plant contains a number of toxins. According to the experts at Alberta Plantwatch “The tea can cause drowsiness and can act as a strong diuretic, cathartic or cause intestinal disturbances. The tea should be used infrequently and strong tea avoided. Like other plants in the Heath family, it contains an andromedotoxin that can cause adverse effects including headache, cramps, indigestion, vomiting, and even death. It also contains narcotic substances and an active oil (ledol) that may have a restorative effect like caffeine, but which can cause cramps and paralysis in large doses.”
This put something of a damper on my desire to rush out and start harvesting. A better idea (one that protects native plants rather than squandering them) is to go out and enjoy the smell. Unlike Thoreau, I’m not sure what a bee smells like, instead Labrador tea smells to me like the last wild, unkempt places on Earth.
Source link : https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/2015/08/12/labrador-tea-its-effects-history/33692100007/
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Publish date : 2015-08-12 03:00:00
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