Northern Bugleweed

Lycopus uniflorus is a native perennial to Minnesota. I find bugleweed every year growing along the sandy lakeshore of the beach among blue lobelia, jewelweed, common boneset and slender leaf foxglove — all moisture loving plants that bloom in mid to late summer, July to September. Northern bugleweed’s tiny, delicate blossoms seem to shower sparkling white lights shooting from the deep, green foliage in the height of the growing season. Leaves are coarsely toothed around the margins (leaf edges) and grow up to 3″ long. Northern bugleweed is similar to water horehound (Lycopus americanus), but the flower’s calyx is much shorter, and water horehound has deeply lobed lower leaves while northern bugleweed does not.

Muskrats consume the tubers (the rounded parts underground). The tubers are very small, about the diameter of a pencil or less, and are said to resemble the Chinese artichoke. Indeed, a number of indigenous cultures of North America have long gathered the tubers as part of their diet. Ethnobotanist, David Moerman, documents Lycopus uniflorus as a staple food of the Okanagan nation who enjoy northern bugleweed steamed or baked.

The parts that grow above ground have medicinal properties that require caution, especially for those with a poorly functioning thyroid. Northern bugleweed’s green parts have been used to treat hyperthyroidism (Grave’s disease) because it lowers TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone); concomitantly, its use could enlarge the thyroid (goiter) for those with hypothyroidism. The whole plant has been used to treat a spectrum of maladies including illnesses requiring sedative and anti cough effects.

Although this plant is in the Mint family, the leaves are not very aromatic when crushed, and have a very bitter taste.