Updated December 2021

• Book - Anita Ralph and Mary Tassell (2020). Native Healers: Foundations in Western Herbal Medicine. 1st edition. Aeon Books.

This book is a companion textbook for the Foundation Course. There is no requirement to buy this book to be able to do the Foundation Course, as all materials are provided online, but you may wish to have this to hand during and after completing the course. A percentage of the sales of this book go to Heartwood Education, a non-profit charitable trust, and will therefore go toward helping other educational projects to help more people access herbal medicine information.

• Book - Elpel, J.T. (2013). Botany in a day: the patterns method of plant identification. 6th ed. Hops Press. This book is not required reading for the Foundation Course, but it does expand on some of the plant identification that is covered in the Foundation Course. It also gives a brief introduction in to some of the plant compounds found within key medicinal plant species, in a very accessible way. You may find this book useful therefore to expand slightly on what you will learn on this course.

Other interesting books are listed in our Further Reading suggestions.

You may enjoy sourcing a plant identification guide or flora - suggestions include:

• Kingfisher Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe, David Sutton (very good value, with good illustrations and comparisons). ISBN-10: 1856971554 / ISBN-13: 978-1853688430
• Collins Wild Flower Guide, David Streeter, C. Hart-Davies, A. Hardcastle and L. Harper (heavy but small book for committed naturalists - just about portable on a walk!). ISBN-10: 0007183895 / ISBN-13: 978-0007183890
• Casell’s Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe, Marjorie Blamey and Christopher Grey-Wilson (a desk top, not especially portable, guide for the real enthusiast - extremely high quality). ISBN-10: 030436214X / ISBN-13: 978-0304362141

NOTE: If you do not live in Europe, you may prefer to buy a plant identification guide more fitting to your location on our beautiful planet. We would love to hear from you, if you can recommend a Plant Flora/Plant Identification Guide for plants in other plants of the world – please let us know about your favourites!