Frelinghuysen Arboretum Introduces New Cell Phone Tour
of Civil War-era Medicinal Plants

Cell phones and Civil War-era medicinal plants would seem to have nothing in common but in fact they have been brought together in a new exhibit and cell phone walking tour at Frelinghuysen Arboretum that starts June 1 and runs through September 30 at the Arboretum at 53 East Hanover Avenue in Morris Township.

The tour promises to be a popular one, judging by the turnout of some 3,000 plant lovers at last year’s first-ever tour of “Medicinal Plants of the Civil War”, said Lesley Parness, Superintendent of Horticultural Education at the Arboretum. Doctors and nurses who were working in the field during the Civil War without benefit of running water or sanitation facilities would often turn to folk remedies to treat their patients.

While modern medicine is the stuff of giant corporations, a century and a half ago field doctors and nurses often had little more to turn to than the plants growing in the fields around them. For example, with malaria a common medical problem during the Civil War, quinine would have been a popular remedy for medical personnel to get their hands on. Not so, however, for the staff of the Confederate Army whose shipments were prevented from reaching soldiers due to blockades set up by the Union Army.

Instead medical personnel turned to the bark of the dogwood tree “Cornus florida” to serve as a substitute for quinine to battle malaria.

A list of medicinal plants included such remedies as a poultice made of Rhus aromatic or Sumac, used to control bleeding. Other herbal cures included Capsicum annum or Cayenne pepper, a rubifacient, which was used to treat muscle and joint pain when applied as a salve and Humulus lupulus or Hops; once its flowers were brewed, it could be used as a sedative for the ailing.

These are just some of the 25 botanical examples on display exhibiting how plants worked to heal injured and ailing soldiers.

Visitors to the Arboretum can begin their tour behind the Haggerty Education Center by dialing into a series of phone numbers that have been dedicated to the tour. Speakers on the tour include members of the North Jersey Civil War Roundtable and staff at the Arboretum.

Images of these plants can be found at www.arboretumfriends.org. A one hour long program on Medicinal Plants of the Civil War for groups of 10 can be arranged at a cost of $10 per person. To schedule a tour, contact Lesley Parness at lparness@morrisparks.net.

The tour is funded by the North Jersey Civil War Roundtable, the Provident Bank Foundation and the Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum.