The first yerba buena I ever found was trailing through a mat of salal on a shaded bank above my father’s old trail-crew cut, and I walked past it twice because I was looking for something taller. It was my father who stopped, crouched, and rubbed a leaf between his fingers. The smell came up clean and minty, and he said, “That’s the good herb,” as if he had been waiting for me to ask.<\/p>\n
He was nearly right. Yerba buena<\/em> is Spanish for “good herb,” and the plant, Clinopodium douglasii<\/em> (older books list it as Satureja douglasii<\/em>), is a trailing, evergreen member of the mint family that creeps along the floor of Douglas-fir and hemlock woods from British Columbia down into California. It is one of the gentlest wild teas on this coast, and it is a good first plant for a beginner because you can confirm it with your nose and your fingers as well as your eyes. It still takes care, which is the rest of this post.<\/p>\n One rule before anything else, and I will say it once: never eat or drink a wild plant on the strength of a book, an app, or a single source. Confirm it against more than one reputable guide and, better, an experienced local who can put it in your hand. When in doubt, leave it.<\/p>\n