A Wandering Botanist: Plants and Tasks of the Past

Diving into the history of plants frequently shows me crafts and professions that I knew little about and that are now largely forgotten. Some have gone from household tasks to highly industrialized and so are out of everyday sight, for example, cloth production. Others, like carriage repair, have been replaced as the technology moved on and exist only for hobbyists.

early modern loom,
National Wool Museum, Wales

The technology change over even my lifetime has been jaw-dropping. My grandmothers sewed clothes for their families, my mother briefly did, but now we select pre-made clothes. Only a few people sew their own clothes and generally not everyday clothes.

Meal preparation in my childhood began with unprocessed ingredients--raw meat, whole vegetables, dry grains--which were combined and cooked in the kitchen. Today we can pull the commercially-made pizza out of the refrigerator or just call for the delivery of a meal. Cooking is going the way of sewing.

These are all wonderful labor-saving things. They apply to all kinds of tasks.

yarrow, Achillea millefolium

The history of any of our civilizations includes lots of uses of plants that are now largely obsolete. Before the rise of cities, and in rural places still, medicines grew in the fields, you gathered and processed them in anticipation of illness. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) dried or fresh was kept to press over a cut to slow the bleeding and add antiseptics. Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) flowers, fresh or dried, steeped in a liquid, were taken for throat discomfort. Willow bark (Salix) or meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) leaves were used to clear up headaches. All of these functions have been replaced by the local pharmacy. Plants are often still at the base of the preparation, but we do not prepare them ourselves.

The seed heads of teasels, Dipsacus fullonum, were gathered (or grown) and used to tease newly woven woolen cloth. Teasing raised the nap, making the surface of the cloth shiny and softer. We don't make our own cloth. The teasels have become just roadside weeds.

teasel, Dipsacus

Baskets were another useful household item people made for themselves but no longer do. For that you would know the twigs and stems of your area, willow (Salix) versus sumac (Rumex) versus cattails (Typha), for example.

People swept stuff off their floors with conveniently-shaped plants. But they turned broom-making over to specialists as towns became dense enough that the materials were sparse or, as the professionally tied broom swept better than the improvised one. Today, even professionally-made brooms struggle to compete with vacuum cleaners.

And more home uses of plants. Arthur Whistler, writing Plants of the Canoe People, has a table "List of uses for plants in Polynesia." These are too many to list here (65) but beyond the obvious food, medicine, clothing, and canoes are soap/shampoo, mats, sails, brooms, fans, floats, insect repellent, wrappers (for food and more), preservatives, containers, brushes, abrasives, toilet paper, deodorant, toothbrushes, and musical instruments. When he mentioned many of these, I nodded "sure, of course," but I would not have thought of them myself.

ti, Cordyline fruticosa.
In Polynesia the leaves were braided and
woven into into skirts and kilts, daily clothing for most people.

No more than a few generations ago, almost all of us have been skilled at turning some plants into everyday objects and experienced with lots of others. We would know the plants from which things were made and have opinions about them. Do you prefer white maple (Acer saccharinum) or white oak (Quercus alba) for tool handles? Do you like banana leaves (Musa paradisiaca) or giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos) leaves for wrapping and serving steamed fish? I have imagined people at a Medieval banquet comparing the plants they use to settle indigestion as we compare pain relievers. At one time, plant products were all around us and we knew them well.

If you have foraged for wild food plants or tried to re-create a traditional craft, such as dyeing with leaves, you know how much time and how many preparatory steps it takes. It is no surprise people have let others do it, buying the finished product.

And the result is a vast store of knowledge that is generally lost. We don't need it. We have plenty to learn to keep up with steadily changing computers, phones, aps...

So, as with sewing and cooking, plant knowledge has become something for a few professionals or for hobbyists. Walter McClintock, visiting the Blackfeet at the end of the 1800s, was really impressed to find that all the women were extremely knowledgeable about plants: their identification, where to find them, and how to use them. Some generations ago, that was true for all of us, but many of us are much less in touch with that heritage than the Blackfeet.

And of course it was not just women. Men needed to understand the materials and tools they worked with, and up until recently, those were made from plants, much more directly than they are today.

When I write about a plant in this blog, I like to describe its uses. I have two goals. One is to share what those uses are, so we see the plant as not just flowers and leaves. The other goal is an acknowledgement of the past, when those uses were not just curious stories, but every day practices.

Chew a parsley leaf to settle your stomach. Brush dust off the paving stone with a plant-top. If you live where bananas grow, try a leaf as a food wrap. And, doing so, remember centuries of people making tools for everyday activities directly from plants.

leaves on a young banana plant

Comments and corrections welcome.

A Wandering Botanist

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Plants and Tasks of the Past

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