Silk tree

The person who cannot sleep because the day replays, sighing often, with a tight chest and a heavy heart after loss or disappointment

Irritable low mood with a feeling that pleasure has drained out of life, without the heat or agitation that calls for stronger herbs

Bruising and swelling after a fall in a patient who is also shaken and sleeping badly (bark with flower)

Overview. Albizia julibrissin, the silk tree, is a fast-growing deciduous legume native from Iran through the Caucasus and China to Korea and Japan, and widely planted, often invasively, in warm temperate regions. Its pink pompom flowers give it the name tree of happiness. Chinese medicine uses two parts: he huan hua, the flower or bud, harvested in early summer and dried, and he huan pi, the stem bark. Both are classed among the herbs that calm the spirit, and the flower is the gentler, more purely emotional remedy of the two.

Clinical Notes. He huan hua is the flower to reach for in grief, disappointment and quiet resentment that settle into the chest and disturb sleep. The picture is a patient who sighs, feels a knot or tightness under the sternum, is irritable but not hot, and cannot switch off at night.

Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: neutral. Taste: sweet (flower); sweet, slightly bitter (bark). Channels: Heart, Liver. Actions: Calms the spirit and relieves constraint from emotional strain; Harmonizes the Heart and Liver and lifts a low, irritable mood; Bark also invigorates blood, reduces swelling and knits sinew and bone; Bark disperses abscesses and promotes healing of traumatic injury.