Find a plant by how you feel

Arabian jasmine

Jasminum sambac

Waxy night-scented flowers for scenting tea — a pot plant in zone 6b, a hedge where frost is a rumor.

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Ashwagandha

Withania somnifera

Winter cherry root — an adaptogen for wired-and-tired nights, not a stimulant.

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Blue vervain

Verbena hastata

A candelabra of purple spikes in wet ground — a bitter American nervine of the old Eclectic physicians.

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Cannabis (hemp & marijuana)

Cannabis sativa

A dioecious annual used as fiber, seed food, and — where legal — as a medicine for pain, nausea, and spasticity.

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Catnip

Nepeta cataria

A grey mint that sends cats sideways and, as a mild tea, settles people the other direction.

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Chamomile

Matricaria chamomilla

A small daisy used for centuries as an evening tea for restlessness and mild digestive cramp.

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Fly agaric

Amanita muscaria

The red fairy-tale mushroom — a deliriant poison with a folk-intoxicant history, not a gentle psychedelic.

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Henbane

Hyoscyamus niger

Sticky, dingy-yellow bells with purple veins — the witches’-herb and medieval beer-plant that is now a labeled poison-garden specimen only.

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Hops

Humulus lupulus

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

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Kava

Piper methysticum

Pacific ceremonial root for social ease and muscle quiet — liver-safe only as traditional aqueous preparations.

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Lavender

Lavandula angustifolia

Silver-leaved Mediterranean shrub; the scent alone is a documented mild anxiolytic.

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Lemon balm

Melissa officinalis

Lemon-scented mint for fretful moods, a racing mind, and cold-sore lips.

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Lemon verbena

Aloysia citrodora

An Andean shrub that smells more of lemon than lemon does — a digestive and evening leaf.

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Linden

Tilia cordata

Heart-shaped leaves and a honey-bract blossom — the classic European calm-and-cold tea.

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Motherwort

Leonurus cardiaca

A bitter mint for a racing heart and a spinning mind — not a culinary leaf.

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Mugwort

Artemisia vulgaris

The roadside Artemisia of dream pillows and roast goose — a bitter with a long folklore and a thujone limit.

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Nutmeg

Myristica fragrans

One fruit, two spices — the brown seed and the lacy red mace — a kitchen warm with a hard stop at the teaspoon.

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Oatstraw

Avena sativa

The same plant as breakfast — milky tops and straw as a traditional nervine food-tea.

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Opium poppy

Papaver somniferum

The garden poppy that also yields opium — a beautiful annual whose latex is the source of morphine, codeine, and a century of addiction medicine.

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Passionflower

Passiflora incarnata

A climbing vine with baroque flowers, used when the mind will not step off the wheel.

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Poria

Wolfiporia extensa

A buried pine fungus used in Chinese soups for dampness, gut, and calm — a sclerotium, not a mushroom cap.

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Reishi

Ganoderma lucidum

The lacquered 'mushroom of immortality' — a bitter decoction for recovery, sleep, and immune tone.

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Schisandra

Schisandra chinensis

The five-flavor berry of Chinese tonic medicine — sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, and salty in one hanging cluster.

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Skullcap

Scutellaria lateriflora

A wetland mint for circular thinking — a nervine that wants the right species.

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Sweet marjoram

Origanum majorana

Oregano’s sweeter kitchen cousin — a tender Mediterranean mint for digestion and a quiet evening cup.

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Valerian

Valeriana officinalis

Foul-sweet root used as a non-habit-forming night herb — strong, uneven, not for everyone.

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Wild cherry

Prunus serotina

Black cherry of eastern woods — a cough-bark folklore, and a tree whose wilted leaves are a livestock warning.

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