Devil's Club Salve

Devils Club is a powerful plant of the Alaskan forest, used to enhance healing of many an ailment. Combined with yarrow, spruce sap and usnea. Devil’s Club Salve is used by many locals for aching muscles, bruises, surface wounds & insect bites.

DEVIL’S CLUB (Echenopanax horridum)
OTHER NAMES: Alaskan Ginseng
Ginseng Family (Araliaceae)

Devil’s Club: Plant of Magic and Medicine
Pacific Northwest Coast Native groups use Devil’s Club decoctions as an external treatment for skin irritation and for treating infections by covering the wound. Used also to relieve pain and swelling from insect bites. Many natives believe that harvesting is best done in the spring time because the plant is most potent at this time.

Habitat and Range
Devil’s Club forms dense thickets in moist woods. It ranges from south-central Alaska and the extreme southwest Yukon coastally to California.

Physical Description
Grows to 8 feet tall. Stems are covered with large prickles. Small white flowers are arranged in umbrella like groups and for an elongated cluster. Fruits, scarlet berries are inedible, Leaves are large, maple-like, with 5 to 7 shallow or deep lobes and have spines on the undersides of leaves.

Janice Schofield, Discovering Wild Plant