Ep. 245: Wild Medicine with Ali English

Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast we talk with UK herbalist and teacher Ali English, author of Wild Medicine (Aeon Books), about her path from childhood gardening and Culpeper’s Herbal to formal training and later teaching in the Lincoln College herbal medicine degree program. Ali describes how the course is structured (therapeutics, anatomy and physiology, evidence and critical thinking, pharmacy/community practice, and intensive clinical training and exams), and discusses gaps like limited outdoor time. She explains her practical approach to medicine making (teas, syrups, salves, tinctures, decoctions, and combined extracts), her interest in energetics, planetary correspondences, and hedge-witch “small magics,” and how she evaluates plant associations through both tradition and experience. The conversation also covers plants like knapweed, scabious, rosebay willowherb/fireweed, and blue flag, plus dosing differences between the UK and US, and Ali's upcoming projects, consultations, workshops, and mentoring.

00:00 Meet Ali English

00:36 Finding the Plant Path

04:35 Early Herb Books

05:55 Training at Lincoln College

06:43 Making Herbal Remedies

08:37 Inside the Degree Program

11:54 Clinical Exams and Practice

15:15 Fieldwork and Plant ID

18:12 Why Write Wild Medicine

24:02 Witchcraft and Energetics

28:41 Planetary Plant Links

31:38 Local Herbs Over Imports

33:23 Harvesting Knapweed Medicine

34:18 Decoction and Double Extracts

36:48 Astrology in Tincture Craft

38:59 Knapweed as Liver Tonic

39:57 Fireweed Uses and Fermented Tea

43:26 Blue Flag Dosing and Trauma

45:53 Why Herbal Dosage Differs in the UK and the US

52:30 Teaching Energetics in Clinic

55:30 New Projects and Offerings

57:19 Consults Workshops and Farewell