Known as informally as Mo, I’m an ethnobotanist and research herbalist. I live in Scotland in a self-built wooden house where I’ve created a wild, teaching garden on 4 organic acres, encouraging edible and medicinal species to make their home. I hold a Masters degree in Herbal Medicine, am a Fellow of the Linnean Society, a Member of the British Mycological Society and a Member of the Association of Foragers, which I helped to found in 2015. I’ve has been teaching foraging and herbal medicine for several decades now, with the aim of “Restoring Vital Connection” – the mantra of the Association of Foragers.
As a research herbalist I work with the Claid Clinic to further our knowledge of treating people with long bacterial and post-viral illnesses such as Lyme disease. I am a Member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS).
In 2023, I started the Wildbiome® Project – a citizen science study tracking the health changes seen on wild food diets. The 2023 results can be found here. The next arm of the study is in April 2025. To sponsor this important body of work click here.
Author
Books
My book ‘The Wilderness Cure: Ancient Wisdom in a Modern World‘ was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022. It relates what I learned from my year of living on only wild foods. The Wilderness Cure won the John Avery Award in the Simon Food and Drink Awards 2022. It has subsequently been translated into Korean and Polish. I am represented by the literary agent Janklow & Nesbit.
Publications
Łuczaj, Ł., Wilde, M., & Townsend, L. (2021). The Ethnobiology of Contemporary British Foragers: Foods They Teach, Their Sources of Inspiration and Impact. Sustainability, 13(6), 3478. Link
Biography
Early years
I have been fascinated by herbs and plants since childhood. My original interest was sparked by a wild childhood in Kenya, where I was introduced to herbal medicine by a local Kikuyu herbalist at the age of six. We were outdoors most of the time and I remember with joy the freedom of those early years. I love foraging for wild food as well as wild medicine and would happily never visit a supermarket again. My childhood covered four continents and I also had a childhood fascination with the traditions and medicines of American Indians. When I was 9, I was sent to boarding school and fondly remember ‘Mima’, my ‘adopted’ grandmother who rescued me for weekends and taught me the herbs of the Sussex countryside, and my aunt who collected lichens and plants to dye sheep’s wool for spinning.
I have a keen interest in the different ways that people live and I collect stories and fables from traditional peoples across the world. I have also had the good fortune to have run talks and workshops in West Africa, the Caribbean, Scandinavia as well as the UK.
Career
As my school careers advisor never mentioned that you could actually study to be a Medical Herbalist, I went off the art college. It seemed a lot more exciting than being a secretary! In the early 1980s I was a scenic artist at the Royal National Theatre London, before emigrating to the West Indies to screen print T-shirts on the beach! Returning to the U.K. in 1995, I worked in branding, corporate communications and marketing, invented coloured flame birthday cake candles, and added to life experience with a stint as Operations Director in the gift industry. As a single parent bringing up three children I was prepared to turn my hand to anything.
In 1995 I met my friend Dee Atkinson, one of the UK’s leading medical herbalists, who was running Napiers at the time and needed some labels and literature designed. Finally I learned that herbalism was an actual career choice and started studying everything I could devour!
After investing, I ran Napiers the Herbalists, from 2007-2021. Founded in 1860, Napiers is Scotland’s oldest and most trusted herbal medicine and complementary health company. It may well be the oldest in the U.K. with an unbroken lineage of clinical herbal practice. Napiers still provides health care, herbal supplements and natural skincare to people all over the world. Napiers has three clinics in Bathgate, Edinburgh and Glasgow and the Napiers Claid Clinic for long Lyme, long Covid and post-infection conditions.
Current practice
Herbal medicine is not just a profession but a passion. I achieved the MSc Herbal Medicine with Merit at the University of Central Lancashire (with a special focus on beneficial drug, herb and micronutrient interactions) when I turned 50. It’s never too late to study. I have since specialised, deeply immersed in researching the herbal and integrative medicine treatment of infectious diseases, with a particular focus on Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) and other tick-borne stealth infections. I direct the Napiers Claid Clinic, a group of very dedicated practitioners, and am an advisor to the Lyme Resource Centre Scotland. I also see some patients through the Napiers Lyme Clinic with patients in many countries – since the move to online consultations.
I also trained as a doula with Red Tent Doulas under the brilliant Nicola Goodall. I am interested in supporting and empowering young women who wish to have a spiritually uplifting home birth, alongside their midwife.
Foraging
I have been foraging since I was a child and formally teaching for more years than I can remember. I was a committee member of the Association of Foragers since its inception in 2015 and am still the treasurer. I am currently living only on a wild food diet for a year – just to see if I can! I am recording this in a book due to come out in Spring 2022.
In past years, I have run private courses and walks and workshops for the Forestry Commission, Scottish Natural Heritage, National Trust Scotland and many companies and community groups. I love to encourage those of you living in our cities to visit the green spaces, parks and countryside and learn about the diversity of your natural surroundings. I have also trained community leaders to lead foraging / wild medicine walks and introduced the joys of the woods to people with a wide range of abilities. If anyone or any group, great or small, is interested in walks or workshops, just email me. It is a pleasure to inspire other people to enjoy nature around us, even hidden in the largest city and foraging can have huge health benefits as well.
Teaching
I am a lecturer on the RBGE Herbology Diploma course (the medicinal uses of seaweeds, mushrooms, trees, lichens) and have also taught the mushroom module for Grassroots Remedies. Public lectures include the annual U.K. Medicinal Mushroom Conference.
Media, Podcasts and Articles
I’ve been interviewed for various podcasts and articles. See them here.
There are also some videos about me.
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As you can see, I’m trying to fit everything into my one wild and precious life.
Scotland has been my home since 1995. Now my children have left home, I find myself unsupervised and getting wilder day by day! Reverting to my ‘weed state’.
Life is a constant joy and discovery.
Mo Wilde x
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