Flora and Folklore: Labrador Tea
By Dale Gilbert Jarvis
Most local readers will know something about Labrador tea, the small evergreen shrub of the heath family Ericaceae. Formally known as Rhododendron groenlandicum, it grows in bogs and swamps, and on rough terrain, in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, northern Europe, the more northern sections of the United States, and of course, Labrador. The Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador offers the following description of the shrub:
Labrador tea is an evergreen shrub, usually less than one metre in height. The new twigs are densely covered with brown hairs, while the older branches have a flaking bark. The leaves are thick and leathery, with the margins rolled under. The upper surface resembles dark green leather. The lower surface has a dense rusty felt of hairs when mature.
Over the years, Labrador tea has also been known as common Labrador tea, bog Labrador tea, bog tea, Hudson's Bay tea, James tea, St. James tea, Indian tea, wooly tea , wild rosemary, swamp rosemary, swamp tea, marsh cistus, moth herb or thé du labrador.
Photo credit: Salicyna CC BY-SA 4.0, wikimedia
Labrador tea has been a popular Indigenous beverage in North America for centuries, and has also been used as a spice for meats. It has been used by settlers, traders, trappers and explorers. William Epps Cormack, the early nineteenth century inland explorer, found the shrub growing in many locations, and in 1822 he wrote, "on the skirts of the forest, and of the [marshes] are found ... Indian or Labrador tea.”
Some connoisseurs recommend collecting the leaves in the spring, before flowering, others in late fall. Some collectors prefer the flowers of the plant, claiming they make an even more pleasant beverage. Most agree that the tea should not be too concentrated, due to the poisonous content of the leaves, and that the tea should be steeped, never boiled. The leaves of the plant have been used in Germany to make beer more intoxicating. In Finland, Labrador tea is regarded as an aphrodisiac, and it is popularly used to flavour liqueurs.
In a 1957 study of the Indigenous peoples of the western arctic, ethnobotanist W. J Oswalt also noted the paranormal powers of Labrador tea. He wrote, "there are ceremonial uses for Labrador tea; one is to turn a stalk and throw it out the door if a child is ill or if you want to get rid of ghosts."
If you try it, let me know if it works.
Sources
“Labrador Tea” in Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications Limited, 1998.
Oswalt, WH: “A Western Eskimo Ethnobotany” in Anthropological Papers of the Univ. of Alaska (1957) v6 n1, pp16-36.
William Eppes Cormack: Narrative of a Journey Across the Island of Newfoundland in 1822, ed F.A. Bruton (London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1928).
In the January 2025 edition of the Heritage Update:
