Hops

Humulus lupulus

Cannabaceae

The beer flower — a bitter, estrogenic sedative that also climbs the shed.

Legal garden bine. Beer bittering is food use. Sedative pillows and teas are traditional.

Parts used: Female cones (strobiles)
Traditional notes: Restless sleep · Nervous stomach · Beer bitter · Tension headache folklore
Grow · USDA 6b: Perennial bine, USDA 4–8 Rhizome cuttings in spring. Give it 15–20 feet of twine. In work: Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: Cones when they feel papery and smell loud, late summer.

A 20-foot bine needs a pole or a house wall.
First-year plants are roots. Cones in year two.
Pick when the cones are papery, springy, and loud with lupulin.

Safety

Depression that deepens with sedatives Hormone-sensitive disease at extract dose

Lore

Monasteries added the bitter cone to beer to keep it, then the beer kept people. A hop pillow is an old sleep trick that smells like a brewery. The bine always climbs clockwise.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.