Many folks may consider those little yellow dandelions that pop up in their yards as pesky weeds, while others may know the plants might have medicinal purposes, especially when brewed as a tea.
But how many know that the blossoms on an Eastern redbud tree are edible? Or that the soft leaves of mullein were once used as rouge for young women’s cheeks or as a way to treat congestion?
Shirley Pratt knows, and she wants to share her knowledge of native plants with the community.
Pratt, who lives in the Happy Valley neighborhood of the Centerville community near Greenbrier, will speak at the Faulkner County Historical Society’s annual program for county residents at 6 p.m. April 30 in the West Side Meeting Room of the Faulkner County Library.
A naturalist and retired botany teacher, Pratt will bring samples of several common native plants of Faulkner County for the group to examine and learn to identify. By doing this, she hopes members of the audience will discover some of the ways these plants were — and still can be — used, such as serving as sources for food or medicine.
“I grew up with the stuff,” said Pratt, the daughter of the late John and Maggie Jackson. “I grew up here. This has been the Jackson homeplace since the 1940s.
“This is my mom’s garden,” she said, gesturing to the front yard of the home where she was raised and later returned to in 2001. “Anywhere she could get a shovel to poke in the ground is where she planted a plant.”
Among the iris, which were just begging to bud, and the daffodils, which had just bloomed, visitors saw native plants such as deadnettle and henbit, as well as the aforementioned mullein and Eastern redbud tree.
“Deadnettle is edible,” Pratt said. “It’s an example of mint. It’s got a square stem and a tubular flower that the bees really enjoy.
“You can boil the leaves and make a tea, or take the leaves and add them to other native greens for a salad. Or you can eat them raw.
“The henbit, which looks similar to the deadnettle but has a heart-shaped leaf, is also a member of the mint family. It’s also edible. The chickens really love this stuff.”
Pratt said that although she grew up on the farm where many of these plants grew, “it was much later before I learned to appreciate them.”
“Mom and dad were farmers. They had crops, then cattle.
“These plants I am now crazy about were weeds to them, weeds that were to be killed. They were fit for nothing but to be hoed out of the garden.”
Pratt is a graduate of Quitman High School. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Hendrix College in Conway and a Master of Science in Education degree in health education from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. She taught science at Quitman High School for 21 years before moving to southwest Arkansas in 1998. She retired from the Texarkana Arkansas School District in 2001. Her teaching career spanned 28 years.
Pratt is a docent at the South Fork Nature Center near Choctaw and has volunteered at the Faulkner County Museum in Conway. She is active in several community projects in Centerville that emphasize preservation of skills and traditions of past times.
Pratt first became interested in native plants when she was a seasonal interpreter at Woolly Hollow State Park near Greenbrier in about 1987.
“I met a teenager, Kevin McNabb, who led the trail walks,” she said. “I never thought anything about the weeds he talked about. He had studied about the wildflowers and the other plants. We connected.
“I just fell in love with [the native plants], so to become a better interpreter, I started studying about these plants. I focused on the wildflowers and the historical aspect of Woolly Hollow and tied them together. I started talking about the plants the family would have used while living in the cabin.”
But it was the time she spent at Old Washington State Park near Hope in southwest Arkansas that sparked Pratt’s interest in the medicinal uses of native plants, especially those used during the Civil War.
“I was the tour guide for the Dr. James Alexander Purdom Home, which had a medicinal herb garden,” she said. Purdom was a physician in the 1850s.
Pratt’s husband, Jack Pratt, who died in 2008, was the lead interpreter at Old Washington State Park. The Pratts were married in 1998 and relocated to the southwest Arkansas park area shortly thereafter. They moved back to Shirley’s homeplace in 2001 to take care of her ailing mother.
“I want people to appreciate what they have on the land,” Pratt said, when asked why she gives talks on native plants.
“I don’t want them to ever feel hopeless. I want them to know that no matter what might happen, there is food and medicine out there,” she said.
“People want to know what to do in case there is a food shortage or loss of power,” Pratt said. “I get calls from preparedness groups and from individuals wanting to know how to identify plants and what to do and how to do it.
“There are edible plants and medicinal plants out there. These are plants that everybody knows, plants they have seen all their lives. They are as common as old shoes.”
Pratt said she thinks “the history of plants has been neglected.”
“I want people to know how amazing these plants were, how necessary they were. Then they will know how important they still are today.”
Pratt said she does not have a formal title for the program she will give at the Historical Society’s meeting; she simply calls it Medicinal and Edible Plants of Faulkner County.
“When I first start the program, I tell them, ‘This is not for everybody. If you find it’s not for you, you are excused,’” Pratt said.
“I once did this program for five hours,” she said with a laugh. “That was in front of a group of gardeners who were as crazy about this historical stuff as I am.”
The Faulkner County Historical Society was formed in 1959 with the purpose of bringing together people interested in history, especially in the history of Faulkner County.
“The society disseminates historical information to arouse interest in the county’s past by publishing historical material in its
journal, conducting informative programs and exhibiting at the county fair,” said Judy Corcoran, secretary. “Recent accomplishments have been the designation of two Civil War 150th-anniversary commemorative markers, which are to be erected at Oak Grove Cemetery and at the Cadron Settlement blockhouse.”
Corcoran said membership in the historical society is open to anyone; the cost is $20 per calendar year per
individual or family. Membership includes the semiannual issues of the society’s journal, Faulkner Facts and Fiddlings.
Various publications handled by the society and the Faulkner County Museum, as well as the spring/summer 2015 issue of Facts and Fiddlings, will be available at the event.
For more information on the Faulkner County Historical Society, call (501) 329-8584.