Juniper

Famous as the flavouring ingredient in gin, juniper is generally grown as an ornamental shrub rather than as a medicinal plant or herb, but that’s a real shame, as it has health giving benefits that extend beyond the ability to make gin taste nice.

Cultivation

Juniper actually grows wild across Europe – it is more commonly found in the north than the south of England but copes very well with many habitats from heaths, to marshy ground and the dry slopes of hillsides and mountains. Juniper can be purchased as seedling plants from garden centres in a number of varieties, but older plants are preferable as they don’t fruit until their third year. The plant can be either upright or prostrate and the upright form can grow as tall as forty feet if unpruned, although it requires ideal conditions for that! A Juniper hedge is not just spiky, it’s ornamental and when you trim it you can use the trimmed sections in a variety of ways.

Parts used

The berries are used in food as well as medicinally, but the wood of the shrub and leafy shoots can also be used for medicinal purposes and an oil is distilled from the plant which has therapeutic uses.

Uses

Berries can be dried in an airing cupboard and stored – they are especially good crushed with greasy meat like pork. A tea prepared from the bruised berries, and fresh branches cut into small pieces, is diuretic – do not boil the plant with the water, but pour boiling water over plant sections and leave for five minutes. Juniper is used in the treatment of rheumatism and the berries, chewed daily, are supposed to increase the appetite.

Juniper photograph by clinton from flickr under creative commons attribution licence

 

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