My Favorite Resources for Herbs, Roots, and Plant Allies

lants were some of my earliest medicine teachers. Learning how to sow and grow, harvest, and prepare herbs, roots, leaves, and bark for various medicinal and magical uses is something that was handed down to me grandfather to mother to daughter.

Nowadays I am fortunate to be able to grow my own plants and to responsibly wild harvest more for my own medical and magical recipes. For those who want to learn from plants the first step can be the most intimidating – there are SO many choices and where does one begin?

Here is my list of favorite books, sites, and people who love plants, roots, herbs, and all that is good and green. This is by no means comprehensive and it covers both the medical and magical uses of plants because I have worked with them in both contexts.
 

Start with what is already in your kitchen.
And then…
 
Books:

Witchcraft Medicine is my all-time favorite.

The Modern Herbal (vols 1 and 2) are classics for good reason.

Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs is actually an industry standard.

Anything by Michael Moore

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic is a classic by Catherine Yronwode.

The Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs: Psychoactive Substances for use in Sexual Practices is very thorough and fascinating.

And the Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants by the same team is also quite good to have on hand.

I also really love the book Braiding Sweetgrass for an exploration of what it means to be in right relationship to plants.