Common Name:  Coltsfoot, Farfara, Coughwort, English Tobacco, Ass's Foot

Scientific Name:  Tussilago farfara (from Latin tussio, to have a cough and farfarus meaning coltsfoot, as the Romans also thought that the leaves looked like a colt's feet)

An early spring bloom with star-like, golden flowers that closely resemble the dandelion (as they are both members of the sunflower family) that grows alongside roads, "waste areas" and trails at lower elevations.

Potpourri:  Coltsfoot has been used as a cough suppressant throughout history, so much so that the genus Tussilago literally means "cough dispeller."  The smoking of the leaves to relieve cough symptoms has been variously recommended by the Greek Dioscorides, the Roman Pliny and the British chemist Robert Boyle. Pliny's treatment consisted of burning the leaves on cypress charcoal and drawing the smoke to the mouth with a reed.  Coltsfoot leaves are the prime constituent of British Herbal Tobacco.  In Paris, a painting of a coltsfoot flower on a doorpost used to be a sign for an apothecary.

The flowers of the coltsfoot appear and wither before the leaves are produced. For this reason, the coltsfoot used to be known as Filius ante patrem, Latin for son before father.

Coltsfoot contains mucilage, flavonoids (yellow coloring), alkaloids, tannin and zinc.  The mucilages supply the soothing expectorant effect with anti-spasmodic action. The significant levels of zinc in the leaves have an anti-inflammatory effect.  A decoction made from the leaves is recommended for the treatment of asthma, whooping cough, laryngitis, bronchitis, and a variety of other pulmonary infections.