Invasive Plant Pull and Medicine Making with Japanese Barberry (Free, no registration required) – Barberry pull 10-12; Medicine making 1:30 – 2:30

Hosted by Friends of Whites Woods (https://www.friendsofwhiteswoods.org/), The Pennsylvania School of Herbalism (www.paherbschool.com), and the Pick a Dilly Herb Faire (https://dillweedinc.com/event/pick-a-dilly-herb-faire-3)

Join us for a day focusing on a potent medicinal invasive species in our ecosystem: Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii). We have a two-part event, and you are welcome to attend one or both sessions.  This is a free event and open to the public.

MORNING: Japanese Barberry: Identification and Pull with Friends of White’s Woods – 10am – 12pm at White’s Woods (12th street entrance: ).Join us at White’s Woods to learn about Japanese Barberry’s impact on the ecosystem and on tick populations, and take part in a Barberry removal project to help our local ecosystem.  As we do this, herbalist Dana Driscoll will share about how to identify barberry and demonstrate the difference between our native American Barberry (Berberis canadensis) and Japanese Barberry.  We will spend time pulling and digging barberry out of the forest.

AFTERNOON: Japanese Barberry Medicine Making: 1:30 – 2:30 pm at the Pick-a-Dilly Herb Faire (More details and location). Japanese Barberry is an incredibly useful medicinal plant species that is rich in berberine, which is used both to fight bacterial and viral infections and to increase insulin sensitivity.  Berberine has been increasingly demonstrated by scientific studies to explore a range of medicinal uses, and Japanese Barberry is an important replacement for over-harvested and at-risk berberine-containing species such as Oregon grape root (Berberis nervosa) or Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis).  We will learn how to process and make medicine from Japanese Barberry roots, and everyone will be able to take some medicine home with them.