Caroline Bledsoe learned about herbs as a child from a grandmother full of plant wisdom and with a penchant for wildflowers. Together they used to hike Tennessee's Smoky Mountains in search of unusual plants - sometimes bumping into moonshiners.
Bledsoe has since made a career of understanding herbs, fungi and the multitude of small plants that cover the forest floor. With her help, UC Davis students are studying the science of herbs.
A professor of soil ecology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources' soils and biogeochemistry program, Bledsoe is teaching the spring quarter course, "Culinary and Medicinal Herbs" for the third time.
Her most recent class filled up with 53 students eager to discover the truth behind the funky flora. "There's much more interest than ever," Bledsoe said, noting many students get hooked on herbs and continue corresponding with her long after the class ends.
"I've had former students send me e-mails asking what herbs grow best in a particular region or climate," Bledsoe said.
The human use of herbs spans virtually all cultures, Bledsoe said, "Herbs are easy to grow - it's knowing how to use them that is the biggest challenge. We're not advocating their use to cure life-threatening diseases. We just want to inform students on how to make choices regarding their healing and culinary benefits," she said.
Bledsoe's class kicked off in early April with lectures at the Bowley Science Center. The basics of herbs were covered: Herbs are aromatic seed plants that grow annually, biannually and perennially, and they can be utilized fresh, ground, dried or as oil. By the end of the class in June, students are expected to identify 40 different types of herbs and will have designed their own herb garden.
While classroom notes are important, hands-on learning counts, too. Last week, Bledsoe's students gathered at the campus's Student Farm to plant 29 varieties of exotic-sounding herbs.
As students prepared to plant, teaching assistant Melissa Morris emphasized the delicate nature of cultivating small, leafy objects. "Dig a small hole, don't disturb the roots of the plant or what's around it, and very gently lay the plant in the hole. Then cover it back up with the dirt."
With the sun blazing overhead, Morris said: "We're all in the classroom a lot, so it's good to spend time outside implementing what we learn in the textbooks."
One advantage to herbs, Bledsoe noted, is that they can be grown right outside someone's door. There is no need for large-scale commercial farming.
Emily Burns, a senior in plant biology, scraped some dirt aside to plant a few Berggarten sages, a culinary herb which when grown in full sun develops a purplish cast. She stood back and surveyed the rows where the rest of her classmates were busy kneeling on the ground and scooping dirt.
"This a great opportunity to show us how to grow herbs. One of the surprising things is how hardy and tough they are. With just a little attention, they're easy to grow," she said.
Burns is no novice to plants. She works as an assistant at the UC Davis Aboretum, where she maintains shrubs, plants, flowers and trees. One day she plans to put her plant knowledge to use as a high school teacher.
Herbs are not just for plant science majors. Shimpei Baba is majoring in mathematics. For him, Bledsoe's herb class is a nice break from vector analyses and differential equations. "I thought this class would be practical in that herbs have so many uses," he said.
Herbs have boosted health and enhanced the taste of food since the dawn of history, Bledsoe said. Some credit these small but powerful plants with mystical properties. The plants were used in China around 2500 B.C. and in ancient India. Around 500 B.C. in Greece, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, considered herbs fundamental to healing.
By the 19th century and the beginnings of modern medicine, herbs played a role in the development of morphine in 1803 and aspirin in 1852. Their use in gourmet dishes is well chronicled.
Until the 15th century, most herb gardens in Europe existed only in monasteries, Bledsoe said. A herbarium - a collection of dried plants mounted and labeled - provided the monks with valuable potions to treat themselves and those who sought their help.
Clifton Parker is a senior writer for the College of Agricutural and Environmental Sciences.