Angelica (Angelica lucida or Angelica genuflexa) is found along streams. Angelica lucida (wtih greenish-white flowers) and Angelica genuflexa (with white to pink flowers) are both found in this area, and are closely related to poison hemlock species, Cicuta spp. Both Angelica species are used medicinally by the Dena’ina people. All are of members of the parsely family, Apiaceae. The medicinal plant, Angelica spp., may hybridize with the ‘deadly poisonous water hemlock” (Cicuta spp.) to which it is related.

Angelica spp. are distinguished by “the presence of sheaths around the stems of the leaves” whereas the sheath is not present on Cicuta spp. (Kari 1995) 

A “large herb” growing “over three feet tall,” Angelica spp. “have thick, celery-like stems” and compound leaves. A. genuflexa “grows along streams and in swamps” while A. lucida is found in “thickets, meadows, and along streams.” 

Considered one of the Dena’ina’s “strongest medicines,” root is used externally for “body aches, pains, sores, cuts, blood poisoning, and any kind of infection.” Root may be peeled, mashed, boiled or soaked in hot water. Angelica is said to numb the pain and heal the affliction. Raw root is used as toothache medicine for the Dena’ina. Use of this plant today is not advised, due to identification challenges as well as potential hybridization, making it unexpectedly toxic or deadly. (Kari 1995)

References

Hultén, Eric. Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants, 1968.

Kari, Priscilla Russell. Tanaina Plantlore Dena’ina K’et’una: An Ethnobotany of the Dena’ina Indians of Southcentral Alaska. Alaska Native Language Center (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Alaska Natural History Association, National Park Service, fourth edition, 1995. 

Russell, Priscilla N. English Bay and Port Graham Alutiiq Plantlore. Pratt Museum (Homer Society of Natural History), Chugach Heritage Foundation, and Alaska Native Plant Society, 1991.

Schofield, Janice J. Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, The Northwest, fourth printing. Anchorage, AK, Alaska Northwest Books, 1998.

Viereck, Eleanor G. Alaska’s Wilderness Medicines: Healthful Plants of the Far North. Alaska Northwest Books, Fifth printing, 1995.

Author

Cecelia N. Dailey, 28 August 2025