Native Plant Society of New Mexico Native Plant Society of New Mexico

Local herbalist and native plant advocate Dara Saville invites all to join this discussion on some of our region’s most famous medicinal plants. We’ll explore iconic local landscapes, key medicinal plants from those places, and species responses to environmental change. We will also look at what we can learn about medicinal uses of these plants as they play healing and balancing roles in their ecosystems and in our bodies. Moving through these themes, we will discuss Juniperus monosperma (juniper), Sphaeralcea spp. (globemallow), Pedicularis spp. (lousewort/betony), and Populus deltoides wislizeni (cottonwood). All of these are featured species in Dara’s recently published book, The Ecology of Herbal Medicine.

Dara Saville is an author, herbalist, geographer, mother, native plant advocate, and a board member of the Albuquerque Chapter of the Native Plant Society. She first started learning about native plants of our area after falling in love with the West Mesa about 25 years ago and working for the National Park Service at Petroglyph National Monument as a Geographic Information Systems Specialist. After receiving her MS in Geography from UNM, Dara continued her botanical journey through herbal medicine programs and apprenticeships including Dr. Tieraona Low Dog’s 12-month medical herbalism program. She put this combined education to use as the founder of Albuquerque Herbalism, a bioregional herbal studies program, and as the Executive Director of the Yerba Mansa Project, a non-profit organization focused on environmental education and native plant restoration in the Bosque. Most recently, the University of New Mexico Press published Dara’s book, The Ecology of Herbal Medicine: A Guide to Plants and Living Landscapes of the American Southwest.