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Herb library · Herb · Rhododendron groenlandicum (formerly Ledum groenlandicum)

Labrador tea

An evergreen shrub of northern North America whose leaves make a conifer-scented tea. It has not been studied in people, and a review warns against drinking it often because of toxic compounds in the leaves.

Traditional use

Grows across northern North America. Among the Chippewa (Ojibwe), Frances Densmore recorded that travelers boiled their water with leaves or twigs rather than drink it plain, and Labrador tea heads her list of those beverage plants; the leaves were tied in a packet with basswood bark, and the drink was sweetened with maple sugar and taken hot. Today the dried leaves are used for tea and to season meat, soups and other dishes.

What studies show

No studies in people of this herb on its own yet. What is known of it comes from the traditions that use it.

  • Insufficient

    Any health use: no studies in people were found. Research so far is on the leaves' chemistry and on cells in a dish.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • AmountA 2015 review advises drinking it no more than once a day because the leaves contain ledol and grayanotoxins, which are toxic; it gives one teaspoon of dried leaves to a cup of boiling water, steeped 5 minutes, as the common recipe.
  • PregnancyThe sources read here give no safety information for pregnancy or breastfeeding. Talk with your clinician first.
  • Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.

From the old books

What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.

“It is interesting to note that the Chippewa did not commonly drink water encountered in traveling but boiled it, making some of the following beverages from vegetable substances that were easily available.”
Frances Densmore, Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians (1928), p. 317. See the page of Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians, p. 317 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians, p. 317

Sources

  1. Labrador tea--the aromatic beverage and spice: a review of origin, processing and safety (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. The effect of Cree traditional medicinal teas on the activity of human cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.