Where Does Osha Root Grow (High Mountain Meadows from Chihuahua to Colorado)

Osha root grows high in the mountains of Northern Mexico and the southern and central Rocky Mountains, mostly between 1,500 and 3,500 metres above sea level. If you are asking where does osha root grow because you want some, the short answer is that it grows only in places you have to climb to, in moist meadows and along forest edges, and nobody has managed to farm it at scale. Almost every bottle of osha on the market started as a wild root dug on a mountainside. Mara's Bear Root is a mountain plant of Northern Mexico, and that origin is the reason the bottle is worth having.

Where does osha root grow in the wild?

The species is Ligusticum porteri, a member of the carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae) and a relative of lovage. United Plant Savers lists its range as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, plus the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. A 2000 CITES document describes the full spread as running "from northern Wyoming to Chihuahua, Mexico."

In Mexico, osha grows in the high country of northern Chihuahua, where the Sierra Madre Occidental runs down the western side of the country. This is Rarámuri country. The Encyclopedia of World Cultures entry on the Tarahumara (the Spanish name for the Rarámuri) records that 60% of the Rarámuri in Chihuahua live in the mountains and canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Their name for the plant is wasía. A 2008 thesis from the University of Texas at El Paso tested it under its Spanish name, chuchupaste, as a plant used by the Tarahumara and other Indigenous groups of northern Mexico.

Further north, the same species turns up in the high country of Colorado and New Mexico. Hispanic ranchers in New Mexico call it chuchupate.

Osha root altitude

Osha is strictly a mountain plant. United Plant Savers gives its elevation as 1,000 to 3,500 metres (about 5,000 to 11,500 feet). The Native Plant Society of New Mexico puts it at 7,000 to 11,500 feet in that state. In the southern part of the range it sits between about 2,100 and 3,000 metres, and drops as low as 1,500 metres only further north in Utah and Wyoming.

In practice that means the subalpine zone, the band just below tree line. In the Sierra Madre and in the Rockies alike, you walk a long way uphill before you see your first plant.

Osha root habitat (moist meadows and forest edges)

Osha wants deep, moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter. It grows in open upland meadows, in ravines, along streams and on the edges of aspen, oak, fir, spruce and Douglas fir forest. Sagebrush is a common neighbour. It handles anything from full sun to full shade, but it will not sit in waterlogged ground.

The plant stands 20 to 60 inches tall when it flowers, from June through August. The tops die back each year. The root stays in the ground with a strong celery-like smell that gets stronger after frost.

Why nobody farms it

Almost all osha is wild-harvested. The CITES document says plainly that "cultivation is challenging and not cost efficient," and that propagation experiments running for years had not succeeded. United Plant Savers adds that the seed needs long chilling and sometimes moisture before it will sprout, that seedlings are rarely seen in the field, and that the plant spreads mostly through its underground rhizomes. It also depends on mycorrhizal fungi in its native soil, and attempts to grow it outside its habitat have failed.

Slow growth means old roots. Herbalists quoted in the CITES document estimate that osha roots are over ten years old when harvested, and the whole plant comes up with them. United Plant Savers lists osha as "At-Risk," and Colorado limits each harvester to 10 pounds of root a year under permit, according to a 2018 American Herbal Pharmacopoeia monograph report.

There is a second reason to leave digging to people who know the plant. Osha looks a lot like poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) and water hemlock (Cicuta), both toxic. The University of Kansas native medicinal plants program warns that poison hemlock grows within the same fir and aspen forests, and that a sure identification takes the seeds, the root and the root's smell. Non-experts should not dig it.

Where the name bear root comes from

The Lakota name for osha is mato tapejuta, bear medicine. The Diné credit the bear with leading them to it. People in the region have long told that bears seek the plant out when they first wake from hibernation and dig up the root.

Ethnobotanist Shawn Sigstedt, who worked with the Diné, watched captive bears given osha chew the root into a mash and rub it over their fur. A hidden camera on his land later filmed two wild bears rubbing osha pulp on a tree and then rubbing their bodies against the bark.

You can read the full history of the plant, from Rarámuri tea to a medicine bundle found in Utah, in our complete guide to osha root.

How the mountain ends up in a bottle

A ten-year-old root, dug high in the mountains by people who can tell it from hemlock, is a scarce thing. A dried root on a shelf sits open to air and light. A tincture (an alcohol extract) holds what the root had on the day it was made, and dark Miron glass keeps the light off it. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. Miron is the gold standard, and it is what Mara uses.

Bear Root is osha from the mountains of Northern Mexico in a 50 ml dropper bottle. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract. It tastes earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root.

A mountain plant, any time of year

You do not need to live near a meadow at 3,000 metres to have osha in your day. Most people take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Some hold it under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow. Others stir it into a morning or evening tea, or add a dropper to a water bottle before a hike or after a run, so the taste of the plant comes along on the trail where it grew.

A bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at that rate, and it fits in a day pack or a desk drawer. If you have seen osha sold under two names and wondered whether they are the same thing, our post on bear root vs osha root sorts that out.

Bear Root considerations

Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask about where osha grows

Does osha root grow in Colorado?

Yes. Colorado is one of the main parts of its range, and the state limits each permit holder to 10 pounds of root a year.

Does osha grow in Mexico?

Yes. It grows in the mountains of northern Chihuahua, the homeland of the Rarámuri, who call it wasía. Mara's Bear Root comes from the mountains of Northern Mexico.

What altitude does osha grow at?

Mostly between 1,500 and 3,500 metres, in the subalpine zone just below tree line.

Can you grow osha root at home?

Very rarely. The seed is hard to sprout, the plant depends on fungi in its native mountain soil, and attempts to grow it outside its habitat have not worked.

Is osha endangered?

United Plant Savers lists it as "At-Risk". Almost all supply is wild-dug, and the roots are often over ten years old when harvested.