Wildflower Wednesday

This week's Wildflower Wednesday's featured flower is Nodding Onion.

Nodding Onion is a native wildflower that blooms in mid-late summer. It can be found in prairies often hiding under the taller wildflowers that grow around it.

It is believed that Nodding Onion played a role in the naming of the city of Chicago. The Land that is now known as Chicago was a marshy area that was filled with many varieties of wild onions and ramps, including Nodding Onion. This gave the area a distinct garlic/onion smell. The Algonquin Indians who lived in the area named it “Chigagou” meaning “striped skunk” or “wild onion”.

In 17th century Europe, John Gerard wrote “juice of onions snuffed up into the nose, purgeth the head, and draweth forth flegmaticke (calm or dull) humors,” It was also used as a cure for baldness, and to prevent rabies after dog bites.  Native Americans and early settlers used it to treat respiratory problems.

Spiritually its essence helps with the grieving process and in the purging of negative emotions to access one's true self.