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COTTONWOOD POPLAR; Populus balsamifera

Description: Plant

Text Box: Large tree 45-90 feet, 1-3 feet in diameter; gray brown bark, deeply furrowed; broad oval to heart shaped leaves; over wintering buds which are large, pointed, sticky yellow-brown, and fragrant: producing long "catkins".

 

Habitat:

Inland Alaska, well-drained gravel, along rivers.

 

Uses:

Poplar buds, gathered in winter or early spring before they open, are covered with sticky, aromatic resin. These sticky buds are gathered and prepared into a salve, generally known as Balm Gilead, or Balsam of Gilead. The balm is useful for burns, scalds, boils, hemorrhoids, and as a nasal salve. Poplar bud tea is used against colds as an expectorant.

 

Special Harvest or Processing Comments:

Buds may be collected during the winter or early spring. You can collect buds when the temperature is just below freezing, so they will be cold enough not to stick to your fingers but not cold enough to freeze your finger tips. Athabascans made a salve simply by cooking the buds in grease over low heat for 10 minutes, then straining out and discarding the buds. Extract in fine vegetable oil, thicken with beeswax: or use Vaseline, cocoa butter, lard, lanolin or shortening.

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