Episode 3: Toothache Tree
Download MP3I have friends with toothache and then parents would tell them, go ahead and get a piece of bark off that toothache tree. And and then I'd see them do it. So I I man, I knew what to do. Yep. You know, if he was over in the island and, nobody wouldn't bring going to Brunswick or anything, you would've have been in pain until you could get to a dentist.
Larry:So that's, that was the best cure.
Courtney:Hi, I'm Courtney McGill, and you're listening to Griot's Garden, a podcast that explores the intersection between people, plants, and culture through conversations with descendants of Sapelo Island's Gullah Geechee community. Join us as we share stories of how native plants have played an important role in their lives. When I was 12, our family moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to Sapelo Island, Georgia. It's always fun to tell the story of how we ended up there. It begins with my mother, who was then a newspaper editor and journalist.
Courtney:One day, she went to work to find a book sitting on her desk left by one of her coworkers. It was a memoir written by Cornelia Walker Bailey called 'God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man.' Captivated by the narrative of Sapelo and its people, my mom and a photographer from her team embarked on a journey to the remote Gullah Geechee community, seeking to learn more. From that one work trip came years of return trips with groups of our family and friends. Sapelo became a tradition for us. Eventually my mom went on to meet and marry then ferry boat captain, 7th generation Sapelo native, and this episode's interviewee, Larry Johnson.
Courtney:We packed our things and headed to the island for good.
Larry:My name's Larry Johnson, and I've been living I was born in 1957, and I lived on Sapelo throughout high school. Then I moved off for a while, and then I came back and got married and lived on Sapelo about another 18 years.
Courtney:Those years of my childhood were filled with so much adventure. I became close to the other island kids, especially during our long school day commutes, riding the island bus to the ferry and then the mainland bus to the school and taking the same way back each day. Community wide seine net fishing and fish fries became the norm. I grew to look forward to that little window of time late in the summer when muscadine grapes would be ready, so I could wander around the island collecting them in an old grocery bag until it was full to the brim. I'd watch Larry piddle around in the big garden he planted behind our house, a task he didn't always enjoy.
Larry:Well, when I first started gardening, I used to hate it because it wasn't a choice. I had to go out there. My mom and dad made me go out to to water the sweet potatoes and water the plants. And, being a young boy, I wanted to be playing. So then after I got grown, I just love doing it.
Larry:So I just volunteered to do it then. Oh, I just I just love to see things grow now. You know, I love to plant corn and sweet potatoes, and I just love to see it grow.
Courtney:But one of my favorite things to do was load up in our pickup truck and go on rides around the island. Me and my brother on the tailgate with our legs swinging in the muggy, mosquito filled air. My mom and Larry in the cab, windows rolled all the way down, mostly for airflow, but also so they could holler, duck, if there was a low lying branch coming up behind us. We'd find ourselves exploring deep into the woods, but coming to a stop anytime he'd spot a plant he wanted us to see. Almost everything we came across had a story.
Courtney:He'd explain how it got there and what it's used for. He'd show us things like sweet grass used in basket weaving for practical and decorative purposes. Life everlasting, used as a tea to fight off cold symptoms, and the toothache tree for numbing toothaches and pains.
Larry:You know, if you was over on the island and, nobody wouldn't bring going to Brunswick or anything, you wouldn't have been in pain until you could get to a dentist. So that's that was the best cure.
Courtney:The seclusion of living on an island meant that over the counter treatments and prescriptions weren't easily accessible. You had to plan around the ferry boat schedule to reach doctors and drugstores. If you needed a remedy and fast, you had to look through Mother Nature's medicine cabinet. The toothache tree, also commonly known as Hercules club or southern prickly ash, is a small native deciduous tree or large shrub from the citrus family. It is found in sandy soils and coastal habitats.
Courtney:The plant is known for its showy, fragrant, and greenish yellow to almost white spring flowers. It has a spiny trunk and branches and shiny leathery leaves. It plays an important role in saplos ecosystem as a key larval host plant for the beautiful giant swallowtail butterfly, as an attractant for other native pollinators, and as a seed and fruit source for songbirds and other wildlife.
Larry:Well, toothache tree was mainly used a lot of people couldn't get to the dentist living on the island. And if they came up with a toothache, they just went out and chipped them piece of bark off the toothache tree, and then they put it in their jaw and hold it on their spot. Eventually, it'll, you know, lighten the pain or sometimes it makes it go away.
Courtney:Native Americans found that the tree's bark and leaves contain a natural anesthetic and began using it to numb toothache pain. By placing a small single thorn on their gum, the pain would be gone within minutes, at which point they could remove the tooth in a painless manner. Early settlers and the Gullah Geechee also learned the medicinal value of the tree.
Larry:One of the one of the main identifying, thing about a toothache tree is it's got a lot of knots on it. Like, it's got warta or something. Especially on the main part of the tree, the big part of the tree. On the on the branches, a lot of the branches, they they smooth, but the rest of it is look like it's got warts.
Courtney:One of the most noticeable characteristics of the plant are the spiny bark and stems. Its bark is covered with massive corky growths up and down the trunk, each one equipped with a sharp stiff prickle. The younger twigs and leaf stalks are also quite thorny. As with most components of Gullah Geechee culture, the knowledge of these plants and their powerful properties were passed down through oral tradition, through storytellers called griots and herbalists like midwives. Larry remembers how he first learned to use the toothache tree to treat his tooth pain.
Larry:I have friends with a toothache and then parents would tell them, go on there and get a piece of that bark off that toothache tree. And and then I'd see them do it. So I I man, I knew what to do. I was I was probably 17, 18 years old, and I couldn't get to the dentist. So I just I knew about the toothache tree.
Larry:So I just went over and, got we got a lot of them all around our house. So I just went over and shaved some off and put it in there.
Courtney:Chewing on the bark or leaves of the tree releases oils sometimes described as a strong citrusy flavor that produces a tingling numbness of the mouth, tongue, teeth, and gums. There are just a few simple steps to obtain relief.
Larry:What what I do is I is I take my knife and I shave the bark off all the way down till it till it gets to the real wood. And then I shave the top of that off and then, you know, like the outside of the bark, I shave that off. And then I put that piece against my gum and teeth. And then the outside of it, you mainly clean it off so you won't get no germs or dirt dropping or anything like that on it. So and then that opened up both sides of the, of the mark too.
Larry:It was usually about 15, 20 minutes, but you don't really have to chew it. You just, you just, you put it by the tooth that's hurt, put it between the tooth and the numb and you just kind of suck on it a little bit and then it come out laterally. And then like every, maybe 3 or 4 hours, you might wanna take that piece out, put it away and then put a fresh piece in. So it kinda numbs you. Yeah.
Courtney:Sapelo's Gullah Geechee people have embraced ethnobotany through their ancestry and daily lives. These stories are a beautiful depiction of the role native plants have played in the preservation of the culture. In closing, I'll leave you with an excerpt from Cornelia Walker Bailey's memoir, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man. Listen as she reflects on what it must have meant for her ancestors to overcome the horrors of being taken away from their homeland and eventually finding hope in the similarities of their new environment.
Courtney:"The climate on Sapelo was hot and humid and buggy, just like it was in West Africa. There were tidal streams and marshes similar to those they knew in Africa. There were seabirds and fish that were similar. There were lima beans, okra, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables that were similar. And they could simmer vegetables and seafood together and serve them over rice in ways they knew.
Courtney:So they would have taken a deep breath and said, okay. This reminds me of home. Maybe we can go on. And found the strength to make a new beginning." This podcast is brought to you by University of Georgia Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant.
Courtney:Supplemental materials about the native plants discussed in this episode can be found at gacoast.uga.edu/podcasts
