All about fireweed.

The violet blooms you see in the photo above belong to Shamerion angustifolium, otherwise known as fireweed (or sometimes, willow herb). This native plant grows abundantly throughout the Pacific Northwest and across many other continents. It's a resilient perennial, beloved by wildlife from bumblebees to bears that feed on its stalks and blossoms — not to mention humans. 

In the Twana language of the Coast Salish peoples, this plant is known as spukWu’say and used for both food and fiber, as well as its believed medicinal benefits. According to herbalist and native foods specialist Elise Krohn, Skokomish Elder Bruce Miller has recommended fireweed tea as a balm for lung congestion and sore throats, but the plant has a long and diverse history of medicinal applications among various Indigenous communities, co-opted by doctors in colonizers' populations in the late 1800s and now integral to numerous herbalism traditions. 

It's worth noting that the plant's common name — fireweed — is based on its ability to thrive in areas that have been previously impacted by fire, logging, and general disturbance. That feels like an inspiring quality in these times, doesn't it? Fireweed was one of the first plants to arrive after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington in 1980, as well as bombed urban areas in London during World War II.