//I am so so so sorry for how long this took me to get around to, I've been so busy and so tired because of real life stuff, thank you all so much for your patience with me\\
¤— Coldamber : Death, Upright : she/her
Purrks- World Weaver [T1], Herbal Knowledge [Tier 2] : WindClan Ancestor —¤
Coldamber furrowed her brows at the seemingly unanimous confusion about the functions of poppy seeds and marigold. It was something that seemed to be common knowledge in every other Clan she'd, was this a result from the lacking presence of Medicine Cats that their warriors did not know the basics? This was.... Concerning, to say the least.
And it
needed to be fixed.
She immediately supposed red poppies, the centers that held the precious seeds a seeming black and slightly fuzzy mass. Besides them, the cloud like marigolds also sprouted, in a variety of shades of oranges and yellow.
"Small detour, dearies. These will be your staple herbs for any healing. The red flowers are poppy. But it is not the flower that you use. Inside the folds of the petals are dark little seeds. These seeds are to be eaten by your patient, but only give them one or two.
It will ease general discomforts and pains, helps calm emotions - especially shock, eases muscles that are spasming, and assists in sleep. Do not give them to pregnant queens, or kittens under 4 moons of age, as you run the risk of harming the little ones. I know that is scary, but this is an important herb to keep at paw.
The orange and yellow herb beside it is marigold. The flower is chewed into a fine poultice and applied to open wounds, it prevents infection, but does not rid the body of one that has already set in, but it can keep the infection from spreading further or getting worse, but you will want to use other herbs to be rid of the infection altogether."
With that over with, she moved on to her pre-planned teachings.
After a moments consideration, she grew a broom brush. Straight, and pointy looking branch-like appendages sprouted from the ground, made less menacing by the vibrant, yellow flowers that grew along the entire length of the each limb. It had taken her awhile to identify the little bush based on a mere description, and one as wildly misleading as "looks similar to bluebells".....
In her honest opinion, they looked more similar to a particular species of orchid or pea-flowers, but she doubted a Clan cat would have ever seen, much less connected the dots on certain flowering fruits and nuts for that last one to make sense if she explained it to them.
"This is broom. It's use was discovered by one of RiverClan's Medicine Cat's from only a fair few seasons ago named Fawnlight. It's use is almost identical to marigold, as the flowers are to be chewed into a poultice and applied to wounds to prevent infection. They do not, to my knowledge, combat infection that has already taken hold."
She was rather glad she didn't have to try to describe this plant. It would be a mess to try to articulate this bizarre little thing that looked like few other plants she'd ever seen before, and certainly nothing like any other herbs she knew.
"You'll find them on dry hillsides, forest clearings, dry scrublands, and dried up riverbeds. I would recommend the hills and old riverbeds to be the first areas you look, as it's where I've found them most, but they are not uncommon in the other mentioned places."
Since she'd ended up teaching two other herbs, she decided to pause here, to allow everyone a moment to catch up, and ask their questions before moving on.
[ @
poppy. , @
Bean , @
Theraphosa , @
starry , @
Katiethewolfchild , @
finley.exe ]