Coppicing for medicinals

I have always thought that coppicing and pollarding are the way to go for sustainable supplies of botanicals! But there seems to be limited traditional experience around of coppicing for medicinal bark, leaves etc. So it is brilliant to see Mark Krawczk's book on Coppice Agroforestry getting publicity, and I hope it will encourage more growers to discover the possibilities of coppicing with a wider range of species. Apart from willow species, for my own part I can suggest at least 3 medicinal species worth having in woodland or forest garden plantings:
Elder (Sambucus nigra and other species), can be coppiced on a three-year rotation for flowers and fruit on one-year-old stems. Both used widely in herbal remedies for colds and flu.
Cramp bark (Viburnum opulus), the European variety, can be coppiced in rotation, stems from 2-3 year old coppice are especially good for harvesting bark in spring which can then be dried and powdered for capsules to use in muscular pain  including menstrual cramps.
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), once established does coppice well, and this is how much commercial leaf supply is obtained, recent research shows that coppiced leaf is richer in active ingrdients! The leaves can be harvested late summer and dried for use in herb tea as anti-inflammatory.
Would love to hear about other medicinals that do well on a coppice management schedule! Pic shows our coppiced cramp bark after one year growth - needs fairly open site to do this well.

This is a nuance to the topic that I enjoy and had not really thought of yet although I was under the impression from something I heard somewhere (probably a podcast) that slippery elm Ulmus rubra could benefit from this because of Dutch Elm disease. Again, just something I heard I think in a discussion about foraging ethics or similar. As I have not harvested my own as of yet, I am not well informed on the best age of the tree for medicinal use.

I was thinking of slippery elm myself. From what I understand, it’s being overharvested as trends in USA take more and more people away from AMA style “treatment”.

And its susceptibility to Dutch elm disease also has decreased their numbers.

Does Ulmas rubra tolerate coppicing?  I know the Siberian elm sprouts from stumps, but that’s the only elm I have experience with.  

In the UK we rarely see grown elm trees now because usually before they reach 15-20 years they are attacked by Dutch elm disease (and these are not the same species as slippery elm anyway). I believe that the slippery elm bark in North America ideally comes from trees of 10 years or older. So if a coppice cycle can be established for slippery elm of 10+ years then that might provide a supply. It is best not to use wild-harvested and there is more on this and alternatives at the United Plant Savers site
https://unitedplantsavers.org/species-at-risk-list/slippery-elm-ulmus-rubra/

Hi, Anne

It is great to see you back on the forum.

Thanks for the information on the medicials.

A lot of folks may not consider rosemary a medicinal.

Rosemary has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties.

It is more of a shrub than a tree so I don't know if cutting it back would be considered coppice.

I cut mine back severely which will work as long as 1/3 of the bush remains.  That is the rule I go by which works for me.

Mimosa is a lovely, rapidly growing medicinal that I'm hoping to get a lot of coppicing benefit from, for both medicinals and goat fodder. As a medicinal, the inner bark is great for assisting with grief, while the blossoms are great for mood elevation.

What about using chestnut leaves as medicinals? I have not tried it personally but have read about it.

Also, does hawthorn coppice well? I have no idea.

Anne Stobart wrote:I have always thought that coppicing and pollarding are the way to go for sustainable supplies of botanicals! But there seems to be limited traditional experience around of coppicing for medicinal bark, leaves etc. So it is brilliant to see Mark Krawczk's book on Coppice Agroforestry getting publicity, and I hope it will encourage more growers to discover the possibilities of coppicing with a wider range of species. Apart from willow species, for my own part I can suggest at least 3 medicinal species worth having in woodland or forest garden plantings:
Elder (Sambucus nigra and other species), can be coppiced on a three-year rotation for flowers and fruit on one-year-old stems. Both used widely in herbal remedies for colds and flu.
Cramp bark (Viburnum opulus), the European variety, can be coppiced in rotation, stems from 2-3 year old coppice are especially good for harvesting bark in spring which can then be dried and powdered for capsules to use in muscular pain  including menstrual cramps.
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), once established does coppice well, and this is how much commercial leaf supply is obtained, recent research shows that coppiced leaf is richer in active ingrdients! The leaves can be harvested late summer and dried for use in herb tea as anti-inflammatory.
Would love to hear about other medicinals that do well on a coppice management schedule! Pic shows our coppiced cramp bark after one year growth - needs fairly open site to do this well.

Wonderful thread Anne! And thanks so much for sharing your personal experience. It adds so much richness to the discussion. Your bring up three of the species that I'm most aware of here (willows, elder and ginko). I also have heard about commercial cinnamon production often being done by essentially coppicing the trees.

I'd also add poplar/aspen buds to the mix. Dina Falconi, a New York based herbalist, was here at our farm a couple months ago and pointed to the abundant sticky, resinous buds on our coppiced and pollarded hybrid poplars, mentioning that they are great medicine. I don't know a lot about it myself, but here's a little something extra - https://www.karensbotanicals.com/blog/what-is-balm-of-gilead-exactly-/

Also, we grow a lot of black currant here on our farm and we're planning to start coppicing some of our plants so that we can begin to market black currant leaf tea.

Dave Jacke did some extensive research on coppicing species and their respective uses for this book over the course of several years. There's a table of top species with edible value included in the book but the medicinals list was quite broad and not necessarily rooted in practical examples. Moreso that of a list of species known to resprout that have medicinal qualities.

I think this is a really important way for us to leverage sprouting through short rotation management. It keeps plants low to the ground and also keep them young and vital. I'd imagine that any species with medicinal properties (which is kind of every species!) could be managed by coppicing assuming that the rotation length allows enough time to yield the material you need (leaf, flower, fruit, bark, roots, etc). For fruiting species, one limitation may be in the interval after coppicing before they start to fruit. This will vary from species to species of course.

Anne Miller wrote:Hi, Anne

It is great to see you back on the forum.

Thanks for the information on the medicials.

A lot of folks may not consider rosemary a medicinal.

Rosemary has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties.

It is more of a shrub than a tree so I don't know if cutting it back would be considered coppice.

I cut mine back severely which will work as long as 1/3 of the bush remains.  That is the rule I go by which works for me.

Anne -
I'd definitely consider rosemary a medicinal myself. And in balmy zone 8, it'd be dreamy plant to be able to coppice (at least from here in late November in Vermont : )
It's definitely woody - and it definitely resprouts. Is it technically coppicing if you still leave part of the plant after you cut/harvest? Well probably not technically, but you're still leveraging the same response to it counts in my mind.

Andrea Locke wrote:Also, does hawthorn coppice well? I have no idea.

Yes it does Andrea. In fact, it's one of the most widely used species in living hedges. I'm not sure how long after cutting before you'll see berries again, but it will definitely resprout.

Carla Burke wrote:Mimosa is a lovely, rapidly growing medicinal that I'm hoping to get a lot of coppicing benefit from, for both medicinals and goat fodder. As a medicinal, the inner bark is great for assisting with grief, while the blossoms are great for mood elevation.

When mimosa grows here(zone 6a) it often exhibits the kind of auto-coppicing that's been mentioned about Elm and Chestnut.
At a certain point they seem to succumb to some disease, we cut them back, and they  spring forth stronger.
The flowers can elevate your mood without eating them, just by  watching the bumble bees and humming birds as they browse among them.

How about wild cherry? I am pretty sure have seen it resprout from stumps, and cherry bark is a classic for coughs and sore throats. I was thinking of trying it this year for peach leaves as well, for stomach and nausea. I don’t know about full coppice with that, as I keep hoping for peaches!!

Mark Krawczyk wrote:

Andrea Locke wrote:Also, does hawthorn coppice well? I have no idea.

Yes it does Andrea. In fact, it's one of the most widely used species in living hedges. I'm not sure how long after cutting before you'll see berries again, but it will definitely resprout.

Since the leaves can be used for medicinal purposes, even if it takes a while to see fruit after coppicing, it sounds like hawthorn can be added to the list then.

Sea buckthorn could be a stacked function coppiced medicinal - berries for medicinal and food, leafy branches for tree hay and the woody bits not eaten by critters becoming firewood.

For those looking for what trees have medicinal properties our own Judson Caroll wrote books for us. Medicinal Trees of the American South. and Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of the American Southeast.

I hope many species' management are addressed in Mark's book.

Great to hear of further suggestions, thanks everyone, so far I think including:
- blackcurrant for leaf
- cherry for bark
- hawthorn for flowers, leaf and berries
- mimosa for flower and bark
- poplar/aspen for buds
- rosemary for leaf and flower
- sea buckthorn leaf and berries
- slippery elm for bark
- sweet chestnut for leaf
Some suggestions refer to pruning regimes as well as coppice and pollard. And especially helpful are Mark Krawczyk's comments - thanks.  It seems like bulk supplies of buds, leaf and young bark are definitely benefits of coppicing. For really vigorous growers like willow I have pollarded (at 1-2 meter height) and then taken off branches individually over a period of several years as needed. But for me the key question Mark raises is the variable time after coppicing before flowering and fruiting. For example, in the past I have coppiced lime (Tilia species) and gained abundant leafy matter - but what I would like is to know if there is a minimum period before flowers will appear?

If I recall correctly, Tilia doesn't flower until it is 15 years old.

Anne Stobart wrote:Great to hear of further suggestions, thanks everyone, so far I think including:
- blackcurrant for leaf
- cherry for bark
- hawthorn for flowers, leaf and berries
- mimosa for flower and bark
- poplar/aspen for buds
- rosemary for leaf and flower
- sea buckthorn leaf and berries
- slippery elm for bark
- sweet chestnut for leaf
Some suggestions refer to pruning regimes as well as coppice and pollard. And especially helpful are Mark Krawczyk's comments - thanks.  It seems like bulk supplies of buds, leaf and young bark are definitely benefits of coppicing. For really vigorous growers like willow I have pollarded (at 1-2 meter height) and then taken off branches individually over a period of several years as needed. But for me the key question Mark raises is the variable time after coppicing before flowering and fruiting. For example, in the past I have coppiced lime (Tilia species) and gained abundant leafy matter - but what I would like is to know if there is a minimum period before flowers will appear?

Great summary Anne. I unfortunately don't have the answer to the interval between coppicing and flowering for Tilia. Someone will have to try it and see (or do a bit more research).

Also, I was just reading this article on balm of gilead making and poplar bud harvest. One thing I should've been clear on is that not all poplars produce buds with the necessary properties. This article gives a little bit of information. https://joybileefarm.com/balm-of-gilead/

Kathryn Chapman wrote:If I recall correctly, Tilia doesn't flower until it is 15 years old.

Hi Kathryn
That's interesting. I don't doubt that that could be a common age for flowering to commence, but I've actually got maybe a half dozen basswood (Tilia americana) seedlings trees I planted that are now 9-10 years old that have flowered for at least the last couple seasons. There isn't a massive abundance of flowers yet, but definitely enough to make it worthwhile harvesting them... So at least we know that it can happen sooner than 15 with basswood.

Just an idea that may or may not have relevance…. about the how soon does it flower question

With the flowering vine, wisteria, usually propagated by rooted cuttings, a rooted cutting from a vine that has reached flowering phase of life will flower, depending on size instead of age.

A seedling must grow many years before it flowers, no matter how big it gets.  A cutting taken from a pre-blooming vine won’t flower until it has reached the magic age, again regardless of size attained.

This from a friend who has owned and run a nursery for at least 30 years.

I wonder where else we might see this characteristic among woody plants we grow, especially trees and shrubs.  If I get a chance, I’ll propagate Tilia sp from a blooming tree.

Mark Krawczyk wrote:

Also, I was just reading this article on balm of gilead making and poplar bud harvest. One thing I should've been clear on is that not all poplars produce buds with the necessary properties. This article gives a little bit of information. https://joybileefarm.com/balm-of-gilead/

Might be worth mentioning, since it has confused me in the past - in the areas of the US I spend time (Md and WV) the most commonly referred to “poplar” is the yellow poplar or tulip poplar. It is NOT in the same genus as the balsam poplars and while it has large buds, I have never heard of them being medicinal.

Oh - Witch Hazel! The bark is used to make the astringent wash so commonly used. I am fairly certain it coppices well. And the flowers bring joy in the late fall when everything else is brown

Don't forget sassafras and chaste tree!

Great, more suggestions! I will have a go at creating a blog post listing on coppicing medicinals next year on our Medicinal Forest Garden Trust website with more pics - and will post a link when set up. Meanwhile here is the cheerful Virginian witch hazel flower for you Lina, it grows well in our acidic soil in Southwest England. I have not tried coppicing it to the ground because I found the best way to manage was to take a 'haircut' of all the twiggy growth in spring, the young leafy twigs make a superb aromatic distilled water, which is very effective for all manner of skin and joint problems as anti-inflammatory and astringent (we added 14-15% orgnaic alcohol as a preservative for sale purposes). I guesstimate that a grown shrub (about 2 m high and wide by 6+ years) haircut makes at least 0.5 litres distillate per year.

Mark Krawczyk wrote:

Kathryn Chapman wrote:If I recall correctly, Tilia doesn't flower until it is 15 years old.

Hi Kathryn
That's interesting. I don't doubt that that could be a common age for flowering to commence, but I've actually got maybe a half dozen basswood (Tilia americana) seedlings trees I planted that are now 9-10 years old that have flowered for at least the last couple seasons. There isn't a massive abundance of flowers yet, but definitely enough to make it worthwhile harvesting them... So at least we know that it can happen sooner than 15 with basswood.

I wonder if the variety matters? I would have been looking up Tilia americana when I had that question a few years ago. I discovered my driveway is lined with basswood (neighbors property, shared drive). I did not notice any flowers and went looking to see if it was one of the trees that needed both a male and female. It isn't, but I recalled the maturity was not quick and I thought it said 15 years. Makes me happy to think it may be less time. It isn't a characteristic that is easy to find in the readily available botanical descriptions. Wish I could remember where I was reading info, book or web.