Chinese Herbalism
Tongue fern
Pyrrosia lingua
Also known as felt fern, Japanese felt fern, pyrrosia leaf, shi wei, shí wéi.
Pyrrosia lingua is an epiphytic fern that grows on rocks and tree trunks in the warm, humid hills of southern and eastern China, Japan, Korea, and Indochina, its single tongue-shaped fronds felted with rusty hairs beneath. The dried frond is shi wei, a mild cooling diuretic used for painful urination, stones, and bleeding since the earliest Chinese herbals. The Pharmacopoeia accepts three Pyrrosia species under the same name; P. lingua is the classical one.
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Indications what the tradition reached for it in
- Burning, frequent, painful urination (hot lin)
- Blood in the urine with heat (blood lin)
- Urinary stones and gravel with colicky pain (stone lin)
- Recurrent urinary tract infection with damp-heat
- Edema with scanty dark urine
- Cough with yellow phlegm and heat in the Lung
- Wheezing with a hot, dry chest
- Coughing of blood, nosebleed, or uterine bleeding from heat in the blood
- Chronic nephritis with hematuria (adjunct, modern use)
- Low white cell count after chemotherapy or radiation (Chinese clinical reports, uncertain)
Specific indications
Burning urination with visible or microscopic blood, in a patient who also has a hot, dry cough: shi wei treats both the Lung and the Bladder at once
Small kidney or ureteric stones with hematuria and a heat pattern, alongside stone-dissolving herbs
Safety
The record lists 5 contraindications; open the plate in the library to read them in full.
In practice
Shi wei is a dependable middle-weight herb for damp-heat in the urinary tract. For simple cystitis with burning and frequency, decoct 6 to 12 g with plantain seed, dianthus, and talcum; when there is blood add pu huang, small thistle, and imperata rhizome, and shi wei with pu huang alone is an old and effective pairing for painful bloody urination.
In Chinese medicine
Temperature: slightly cold. Taste: sweet, bitter. Channels: Lung, Bladder. Actions: Promotes urination and unblocks painful urinary dribbling; Clears heat from the Lung and stops cough and wheeze; Cools the blood and stops bleeding; Clears damp-heat from the Bladder and helps pass stones.
Dosing as the sources wrote it
| Preparation | As written | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Decoction | 6-12 g dried frond daily in decoction | 6000-12000 mg |
| Decoction, larger dose for stones or bleeding | 12-30 g dried frond daily in decoction for short courses | 12000-30000 mg |
| Powder | 1.5-3 g dried frond powder twice daily | 1500-3000 mg |
Doses are reproduced from the sources for practitioners and are not a recommendation for any person.
From the sources
Overview. Pyrrosia lingua is an epiphytic fern that grows on rocks and tree trunks in the warm, humid hills of southern and eastern China, Japan, Korea, and Indochina, its single tongue-shaped fronds felted with rusty hairs beneath. The dried frond is shi wei, a mild cooling diuretic used for painful urination, stones, and bleeding since the earliest Chinese herbals. The Pharmacopoeia accepts three Pyrrosia species under the same name; P. lingua is the classical one.
Clinical Notes. Shi wei is a dependable middle-weight herb for damp-heat in the urinary tract. For simple cystitis with burning and frequency, decoct 6 to 12 g with plantain seed, dianthus, and talcum; when there is blood add pu huang, small thistle, and imperata rhizome, and shi wei with pu huang alone is an old and effective pairing for painful bloody urination.
Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: slightly cold. Taste: sweet, bitter. Channels: Lung, Bladder. Actions: Promotes urination and unblocks painful urinary dribbling; Clears heat from the Lung and stops cough and wheeze; Cools the blood and stops bleeding; Clears damp-heat from the Bladder and helps pass stones.
In formulas
Tongue fern stands in 2 documented formulas in the library, among them sân jin tàng, shí wéi sǎn.
Often paired with
cluster mallowMalva verticillata
Guangdong money grassGrona styracifolia
Japanese climbing fernLygodium japonicum
PlantainPlantago lanceolataNearby on the shelf
ToadflaxLinaria vulgaris
TobaccoNicotiana tabacum
ToluBalsam tolu
Tongkat AliEurycoma longifolia
Toothache PlantSpilanthes acmella
TormentilPotentilla erecta
TragacanthAstragalus verus
Tree peonyPaeonia suffruticosaThe whole plate is in the library. The compass, Compare, the Sky of eleven hundred plants and the formulary open with an email address and a password, free, with the formula builder and its safety engine. Herbert without limit, his formulating, clients, the handouts and the labels are the paid room.
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