The Oregon Forest’s Amazing Medicines: Inside-Out Flower

a little-known gem

Inside-Out Flower

Vancouveria hexandra

The Inside-Out Flower grew in profusion along the driveway past the house and into the deeper portion of the forest on our mountain farm. It was easy to overlook, being small and unassuming, but the delicate foliage and tiny flowers were a grace note against the tall dark fir trees when we thought to pause, bend down, and observe.

While herbal medicines come in many forms: bark, roots, flowers, and leaves, we tend to think of some of these more delicate flowers as merely decorative. The Inside-Out Flower is one of these, often found in the company of other dainty plants growing along the edges of the forest such as Vanilla Leaf or Bleeding Heart. But these, too, have medicinal properties and the leaves were chewed by the indigenous tribes to help with cough and congestion.

Inside-Out Flower

The Inside-Out Flower is a true West Coast native, its range only extending from southern British Columbia to just barely over the Oregon border into Northern California, and only along the western side of the Cascade Mountains. That’s it.

It was named, formally, after Captain George Vancouver, and the addition hexandra means “six-stamens” referring to the flower shape. It is also known as Duckfoot Flower due to the shape of its leaves, and it finds favor with those wishing to landscape with native plants in the Northwest. It makes a good ground cover, filling in empty spaces beneath taller plants. It is easy to grow, spreads by rhizomes beneath the soil, and has no known diseases or pests. It gets its name from the unique flower at the end of tall, bare stamens that rise from the bunch of duck-shaped green leaves. White, three-quarters of an inch in length, they appear to have been put on the stamen backward with the bottom of the flower a pencil-point-like tip and the white petals forming an inside-out umbrella above. They are said to resemble the mountain wildflower Shooting Star. They are easy to grow in a garden, tolerate drought well, and are surprisingly hardy.

Their medicinal use comes as something of a surprise, but it was apparently well-known to the Northwest tribes. It is recommended for anything involving runny noses, congestion, coughs, and similar ailments involving mucous membranes. It is mild and herbalists often pair it with other complementary plants that are used to treat various ailments such as Hawthorn or Mullen for coughs or Mallow for bladder.

It is gathered during the hot, dry days of later summer or early fall. The entire plant is harvested, including the roots, then dried and put into a tincture. Or the whole plant can be ground and tinctured. The dried plant can be stored for a year or so.

If you go looking for recipes online for herbal remedies that include Inside-Out Flower, there are few to be found. The common remedies for colds and flu of course run to the better-known, tried-and-true elderberry, Mullen, bitter cherry, and various combinations of honey, garlic, and so forth. Still, Michael Moore in Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West gives it a respectable amount of space, and it is abundant in the Northwest. A good plant to use as a groundcover in your garden and to keep in mind for an herbal cough remedy.