The Powwow Guy

I love plants and their medicinal and folklore uses. Today as I was walking my dog near my house, I noticed an entire lovely hillside along the road that was positively covered in stickyweed (AKA Sticky Willy)! This is a lovely plant that has a sticky, almost velcro-like quality to it due to the tiny hair like growths along the stem. Sticky Willy grows like a weed and wraps around and climbs on whatever it touches, including itself. It can grow alongside most roads, so it's likely you've seen it or have it near you.

The beauty of this plant is that the leaves can be infused with vodka or gin (clear is best) to give them a lovely cucumber, honeydew, herbal flavor. The stems can be cut up into small bits and added to some water then blended in a blender. Then strain a bit into your cocktail. You can soak the leaves in water for a few hours to use as a facial cleanser. Folklore states it will make you beautiful!

Sticky Willy has powerful antioxidant properties, so the infused water can be drunk when needed. You can make the stems and leaves into a healing poultice for wounds, as well.

I don't recommend growing Sticky Willy in your garden because it spreads quickly and will make your other plants extremely unhappy. But once you find a local place to cut some, that supply will likely return for many years!