How to Forage for Jewelweed + Uses
Learn how to identify and forage for jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), then how to use it to make a soothing poison ivy salve, and a jewelweed itch remedy with apple cider vinegar.
Jewelweed’s always a fun plant to go hunting for! Loved by children for the explosion of seeds that burst forth at the gentlest contact and much appreciated by those woodland hikers who’ve had a run-in with poison ivy or nettles, this cheerful plant is a good one to know!
About Jewelweed
Jewelweed is a self-seeding annual in the Balsaminaceae family. Its botanical name is Impatiens capensis, but you’re most likely to hear it being called “Touch-me-not”, or “Spotted touch-me-not”: named for the seedpod’s habits for bursting open when touched!
The flowers are attractive to pollinators – bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds can all be seen dropping by for visits – and to people, too, making it a good plant for moist woodland shade gardens.
The stems and leaves contain compounds, including lawsone – an anti-inflammatory agent, which help relieve skin that’s itchy or irritated from poison ivy, poison oak, stinging nettles, or bug/mosquito bites.
While jewelweed flowers are technically edible, jewelweed in general isn’t recommended for internal consumption because of the high oxalic acid content. Some however do eat the young greens, but first cook them with several changes of water to leech out the oxalates.
We personally don’t eat jewelweed, but we do nibble a nutty-tasting seed here and there, in moderation!
Video: Foraging Jewelweed Slideshow
Here’s a slideshow summarizing this article. (Sometimes an ad plays first, but the video will start right after! The video player won’t show up if you have an adblocker.)
Where to Find
Jewelweed grows naturally in shaded wetlands. You’ll find it growing along creek banks, in ditches, around bogs and springs.
It’s a native plant to northern and eastern North America, so if you live within that range, you have a good chance of finding it if you poke around anywhere that stays moist and shady!
Watch out!
Jewelweed often has a companion where it likes to grow – poison ivy!
We’ve also stumbled upon snakes enjoying the shade provided by a weedy tangle of jewelweed. Take care where you step and grab when foraging!
Identification
When identifying wild plants, always make sure to closely inspect every part of the plant, and never harvest or use any plant that you’re not absolutely 100% sure of the identity of.
It’s helpful to use a plant identification app for preliminary research (we like the PictureThis – Plant Identifier app), then double check your initial finding with foraging books that are local to your region.
Related Species/Look-alikes
Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) looks very similar to another plant in the same family – the Pale Touch-Me-Not, or Impatiens pallida, sometimes called yellow jewelweed.
You can tell it apart by its yellow flowers. Pale touch-me-not has yellow blooms. However, it still has similar properties as orange jewelweed and is used in the same way, so don’t worry if that’s all you have available.
Flowers Features
Jewelweed’s distinctive flowers can be identified easily with a good close look: the flowers are about an inch long, bright orange, and have dark orange-red spots. Each flower is attached by a fragile, thin stalk (pedicel) to the main plant, almost making them appear to float above the foliage.
The shape of the flower itself is rather trumpet-like, with a curling tail end (the nectar spur). The flowers bloom between July and October, usually standing out quite vividly from their surroundings!
Foliage & Stem
The leaves are oval and blue-green in color, with slightly toothed margins that have a tiny bristle tip coming out from under each rounded tooth. The lower leaves grow in an opposite pattern, while the upper leaves are alternate.
The stem can be red or pink-tinted, but this becomes less noticeable the higher up the plant you go. Swollen nodes grow along the stem, they contain the highly desirable juice that we use for itchy skin, while the rest of the stem is more hollow. The entire plant can grow as big as 4-5 feet.
Jewelweed Seeds
The seeds are slender ribbed capsules that burst open when they’re touched – giving the plant one of its common names, touch-me-not. Walking through a patch of jewelweed once its seedpods are mature means you’ll set off a shower of tiny seeds with every step!
The seeds have a slightly nutty taste and are enjoyed by a variety of birds and other critters, but should only be eaten sparingly by humans.
I don’t have jewelweed on my land!
Can’t find any jewelweed? You can grow it instead!
Purchase the seeds from a reliable vendor- we recommend StrictlyMedicinalSeeds.com – or collect them fresh from an existing patch. Plant fresh-gathered seeds by directly sowing them into moist, shaded soil in the fall. Purchased seeds may first need to undergo cold-stratification; place them in a container of gently moistened, covered soil in your refrigerator for at least 2 months before sowing.
Choose your location carefully- jewelweed needs cool shade and rich soil that stays moist to thrive. Once you’ve found your spot, scatter the seeds over the soil. Don’t cover them! Jewelweed needs light to germinate. Now, other than making sure the patch stays moist, leave them be until they germinate!
Once the seeds germinate, thin them apart to about 6-8 inches. As long as the soil stays sufficiently moist, you likely won’t have to provide any additional care to the plants.
Once a patch of jewelweed is established, it usually handles reseeding itself year by year handily without needing human assistance.
Harvesting + Jewelweed Uses
Jewelweed is best used fresh, so don’t harvest more than you’ll think you’ll use, with the thought of drying some for future use. Once dried, jewelweed doesn’t have much potency.
Fresh is best with jewelweed!
For field use:
You’ll notice several swollen nodes along each stem – these spots are particularly juicy. Break open or cut a stem at this point and apply the juice to bug bites, poison ivy, and other itchy skin conditions. You should feel fast relief!
You can also mash a fresh leaf, working it with your fingers to release its juices (add a little clean water or saliva if needed), and apply to itchy spots.
To harvest jewelweed for projects:
Cut the aerial portions of the plant – this includes leaves, stems, and flowers. Most of the good stuff we want is in the stem and leaves, so the flowers aren’t necessary to collect, however, they make identifying jewelweed much easier, so you can definitely include the flowers if they’re in bloom.
Never pick or harvest an area clean, or pull up a whole plant by its roots; leave at least 3/4 of the plant behind so it can continue growing and reproducing in that area.
Jewelweed Vinegar Itch Remedy Recipe
This liquid itch remedy is super easy to make and offers quick relief from poison ivy, poison oak, chigger and mosquito bites, and other itchy/inflamed skin woes. You need to use fresh jewelweed for this project. Dried jewelweed just doesn’t have the potency.
(If this is your first time using jewelweed, it’s recommended to do a small spot test first on your inner arm, then wait 6 to 12 hours to see how your skin reacts. A rare few with sensitive skin have the potential to react to jewelweed, rather than be soothed by it.)
To make:
- Fill a glass canning jar about halfway with fresh chopped jewelweed stems and leaves. (And flowers too, if you’d like.)
- Pour apple cider vinegar over the plant matter, until the jar is almost filled, leaving a little room at top for expansion.
- Cover with a plastic cap (metal lids will eventually corrode if using vinegar.)
- Tuck in a cool dark place for about 2 to 3 weeks.
- Strain into a new jar, cap, and label.
- Store the finished Itch Remedy in a cool dark spot, or your fridge, for about 6 to 9 months.
To use: Apply to itchy skin as needed with a cotton ball or small rag. Allow to air dry. Use as often as needed.
Jewelweed Salve Recipe
This is a simple salve to make and only requires a few ingredients!
It works best to first treat a poison ivy or poison oak area with just fresh jewelweed juice or our jewelweed & witch hazel spray recipe, if possible, then later follow up with applications of jewelweed salve.
You can also use this salve on mosquito, chigger, and other various bug bites.
- olive, or your other favorite oil (I like half jojoba, half olive)
- fresh jewelweed
- beeswax pastilles
- optionally: white kaolin clay – which helps soothe and relieve itching all on its own too!
More Jewelweed Recipes
You can also make jewelweed soap (cold process, or melt and pour style) or a witch hazel and jewelweed spray for itchy skin.
Our articles are for information and idea-sharing only. While we aim for 100% accuracy, it is solely up to the reader to provide proper identification. Be sure to seek out local foraging classes and plant walks, and invest in mushroom and foraging guides suitable for the area you live in, since some wild foods are poisonous, or may have adverse effect.
Jewelweed Salve Recipe
Equipment
- scissors, to chop the jewelweed
- 2 pint canning jars, for the infused oil
- small saucepan, to use as a double boiler of sorts, for infusing oil and melting salve
- Canning jar or empty tin can, for melting the salve
- kitchen scale, for weighing the ingredients
- a tablespoon, to measure the clay if using
Ingredients
To Make the Infused Oil
- 1 cup oil (olive and/or jojoba are nice)
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh jewelweed allowed to wilt for a few hours
For the Salve
- 3.5 oz infused jewelweed oil
- 0.5 oz beeswax pastilles
- 1 tbsp white kaolin clay (optional)
Instructions
To Make the Infused Oil
- Fill a glass jar half-way with chopped, fresh jewelweed, that's been allowed to wilt for a few hours.
- Pour the oil into the jar, adding more if necessary to completely cover the plant matter.
- Set the jar down into a small saucepan containing several inches of water.
- Heat the pan over medium low heat for 2 to 3 hours, indirectly heating the oil and speeding up the infusing process.
- Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a new heatproof jar.
- Return the jar of infused oil to the small saucepan, adding more water to the pan if needed.
- Heat the pan (still filled with a few inches of water in the bottom and containing the jar of strained oil), over medium-low heat for an additional hour to help evaporate out excess water content.
To Make the Salve
- Combine the infused oil and beeswax pastilles into a heatproof jar or empty tin can.
- Place the jar/can into a small saucepan containing a few inches of water.
- Heat over a medium burner until the beeswax is melted, monitoring carefully.
- Remove from heat.
- Stir in the kaolin clay if using.
- If you added clay: Frequently stir the salve as it cools, which will help the clay incorporate into the salve better.
- If you didn't add clay: Pour the hot mixture directly into salve tins or a jar.
- Store the finished salve in a cool place, avoid hot areas and direct sunlight.
- Shelf life of salves is about 9 months to a year.
References & Further Reading
Cech, Richo. Making Plant Medicine. Williams, OR: Horizon Herbs, 2000. Print.
Foster, Steven and Duke, James A. Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2014. Print.
Howell, Patricia Kyritsi. Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians. Mountain City, GA: Botanologos Books, 2006. Print.
Warren, Mark. Wild Plants & Survival Lore. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2020. Print.
I have Jewelweed growing around my house, usually around late summer. I leave it up , because it brings Beautiful color, and the Honey Bee’s and Hummingbird’s forage the nectar from the flowers. Thanks you for sharing..
What a wonderful plant to have growing right around your house & I love that you share it with the honey bees & hummingbirds! ❤
Jewelweed grows wild out by my barn. It’s an awesome plant! I’m thinking of harvesting some of the seeds when I gather some of the plants for medicinal use this year. They’ll come in handy if the jewelweed patch gets disturbed when we clear the space behind the barn to expand the orchard…plant them where the new hedgerow will be, a bit further back.
Great post! I just sort of stumbled onto your site but am glad for it. Very interesting stuff…thanks for sharing your wisdom!
We’re glad you enjoyed the article about jewelweed!
I have jewel weed growing all over my yard. kids love to have fun with the seeds watching them pop. I made the jewel weed with witch hazel. I made a salve 2 years ago. I’m just having trouble finding beeswax and the other ingredients to make the salve
Hi Stary, How wonderful to have jewelweed growing all over your yard to enjoy!
We’re in a rural area and it’s hard to find beeswax nearby too. Do you have a health store nearby, or a local farmer’s market? They may have some available.
Otherwise we order online – Etsy is a nice place to find small companies that sell beeswax & such.
For oils, you can use the same ones found in your local grocery store like olive, sunflower, or avocado. 🙂