Foraging Medicinal Plants with Lily Wilson

Chuck Olsen | September 13, 2024

Lily Wilson of Earth Body Healing is a licensed massage therapist, herbalist, yoga teacher, and wellness columnist in Cook County. WTIP went on an early fall foraging hike with Lily at Pincushion Mountain. She identified several medicinal plants that can be used in tea, tinctures, or as topical ointments with a variety of potential health benefits.

“It’s really amazing what is up here at Pincushion,” says Lily. “I think it’s a great example of all the different plants that we have up here. I’m standing right beside some St. John’s wort which is pretty crispy with the end of summer. There’s tons of raspberry up here, goldenrod, rose and rosehips, all the tree medicine–a whole range of things.”

Lily emphasized the importance of safety and ethics when foraging for medicinal plants. “Make sure that you know 100% what you are looking at is what you think it is,” she said. Though AI plant identification apps can point you in the right direction, Lily said they can also be wrong. “I’ll just take a picture of something then I’ll consult my ID books,” or even better, she’ll ask a local expert.

Once a medicinal plant is identified with certainty, Lily says to “only take what you need. Especially if you want it to come back year after year, leave a little bit of it.”

Additional resources and audio from the interview are below.