Pretty prickly Thistles

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by theresagreen in bumblebees, flower folklore, flower mythology, Nature of Wales, nature photography, plants important to wilflife, wasps, Wildflowers of Wales

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carduelis carduelis, cirsium arvensis, cirsium vulgare, creeping thistle, Goldfinch, scotch thistle, spear thistle, thistle folklore and mythology

Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants typically characterised by leaves bordered with sharp prickles, mostly belonging to the family Asteraceae. Prickles or spines are not always confined to the margins of leaves, often occurring all over the plant on surfaces such as those of the stem and the flat parts of leaves. These are a defensive adaptation that protects the plant from being eaten by most herbivorous animals.

From an agriculturalist’s point of view, the most common thistles are regarded at best as troublesome weeds and at worst as noxious ones. However, ecologically, the leaves of some species provide a valuable food source to the larvae of a number of lepidopterae species and he flowerheads supply pollen and nectar to an array of adult insect species. Thistle seeds are a favoured food of many members of the finch family Fringillidae, whose genus name, Carduelis, is derived from carduus, the Latin name for thistle and includes goldfinch, greenfinch and linnet.

1- SPEAR THISTLE – Cirsium vulgare

Family: Asteraceae; Flowering: July to September; Habitat: Disturbed and cultivated land such as pastures, meadows, roadsides, arable fields, gardens, brownfield sites and waste ground.

A widespread and common thistle, the Spear Thistle has the classic thistle appearance – purple, fluffy-looking flowers sitting atop a spiny ball and may well have given rise to the Scottish national emblem. As with other thistles, it can become a nuisance on agricultural land and is often considered to be a weed. The spear thistle is usually a biennial plant although the leaf rosettes can survive as long as 4 years before finally flowering. This robust thistle can reach between half and over a metre in height under favourable conditions. The plant is often solitary.

Spear thistle

The flowers are lilac or magenta and are larger than creeping or marsh thistle flowers, reaching up to 4 cms in diameter. Stems are winged and spiny. The leaves are spear-shaped, pinnately-lobed and spiny and give the plant its common name. The upper surface ranges from dark green to light grey. The under surface is green. The leaves are waxy and end in sharp “spear-like” prickles which are tipped with yellow.

Spear Thistle flower buds surrounded by yellow-tipped spines

The average number of seeds per flower head is around 100 but there can be up to 340. Seed production per plant may vary from 1,600 to 8,400 seeds. More seeds are produced when ample soil moisture is available during the growing season. Seeds are mostly dispersed during August and September.

Spear thistle seeds

Spear thistle spreads only by seed. Unlike creeping thistle (C. arvense), the feathery pappus remains attached firmly to the seed as an aid to wind dispersal. Most seed is dispersed less than 2 m from the parent plant and only 10% travel more that 32 m after reaching higher air currents.

Single spear thistle seed

Ecology

Thistle flowers are amongst the favourite nectar sources of the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, and Dark Green Fritillary butterflies.

The seeds are attractive to ants that may aid their dispersal and also to finches, particularly goldfinches and linnets.

Thistle seeds are a favourite food of the goldfinch

Spear thistle flowerhead providing a safe haven for a tiny spider

Scotland’s National Emblem

This thistle, seen throughout Scotland and the Western Isles has been Scotland’s national emblem for hundreds of years. There are several versions as to how the thistle became Scotland’s symbol, most are set around the reign of Alexander III (1249-1286) and in particular the events surrounding the Battle of Largs in 1263.

At one time, Scotland was part of the Kingdom of Norway although it attracted very little interest until 1263 when King Alexander III proposed to buy back the Western Isles and Kintyre from the Norse King Haakon IV. That provoked King Haakon of Norway and in the late summer of 1263 he set off for the Scottish coast with a large fleet of long ships, intent on conquering the Scots. Gales and fierce storms forced some of the ships onto the beach at Largs in Ayrshire, and a Norwegian force was landed.

Legend has it that at some point during the invasion the Norsemen tried to surprise the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to move more stealthily under the cover of darkness the Norsemen took off their shoes, but as they crept barefoot they came across an area of ground covered in thistles and one of Haakon’s men unfortunately stood on one and shrieked out in pain, thus alerting the Clansmen to the advancing Norsemen. His shout warned the Scots who defeated the Norsemen at the Battle of Largs, thus saving Scotland from invasion. The important role that the thistle had played was recognised and so was chosen as Scotland’s national emblem.

The Order of The Thistle

In 1470 that King James III ordered that the image of this plant’s flower be placed on silver coins and also then a little later In 1540, King James V established the Order of the Thistle, a high chivalric order of Scotland. He and his 12 knights each wore a badge depicting a star, a thistle and the words “no one harms me without punishment.”

Today the thistle is found in many Scottish symbols and is used as part of the name of several Scottish football clubs. The thistle, crowned with the Scottish crown, was the symbol of seven of the eight former Scottish Police Services (from which a new national Police Service was formed in 2013), the sole exception being the former Northern Constabulary. The thistle is also the emblem of Encyclopaedia Britannica, which originated in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Thistle is also used to symbolise connections with Scotland overseas. In Canada, it is one of the four floral emblems on the flag of Montreal; in the United States, Carnegie Mellon University features the thistle in its crest in honor of the Scottish heritage of its founder, Andrew Carnegie.

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2 – CREEPING THISTLE – Cirsium arvense

Family: Asteraceae; Flowering: June to October; Habitat: rough grassy places : pastures, meadows, roadsides, arable fields, gardens, brownfield sites and waste ground.

Creeping Thistle is a native, perennial, rhizomatous herb, which forms extensive spreading patches and grows up to 2m+ in height. It is one of our most widespread and troublesome weeds and is listed as a noxious weed in Britain under the 1959 Weeds Act, although to little effect. It appears resistant to herbicides and readily regenerates from rhizome fragments caused by ploughing. It is also a very valuable source of nectar, pollen and seed food for many insect specicies.

Flowerheads of Creeping Thistle-Cirsium arvensis

Female flowerbuds are oval in shape

Flowerheads are pale lilac in colour and up to 2cm across. Female flower buds are oval in shape; male flower buds are slightly more spherical. Bracts are purplish with spreading spiny points. Stems are smooth and spineless. Leaves are very spiny, stiff and wavy.

Pollination

The male flowers produce abundant pollen. The fragrant female flowers are insect pollinated but the pollinators may only visit one type of flower.

Bumblebee on male flowerheads which are rounder in shape than female ones

The time from flowering to seeds becoming viable is around 8-10 days. Seeds ripen from June to September and are shed from August onwards. There may be 20 to 200 seeds in each flower head and an average of 680 seeds per stem. The seed number per plant ranges from 1,600 to 50,000.

Creeping thistle plant gone to seed

The seeds are 4–5 mm long, with a feathery pappus which assists in wind dispersal

Ecology

Creeping Thistle foliage is used as a food by over 20 species of Lepidoptera, including the Painted Lady butterfly and the Engrailed, a species of moth, and several species of aphids. The flowerheads provide nectar and pollen for a wide variety of insects.

30/6/13 – cuckoo spit on creeping thistle

12/7/13-Creeping thistle stem covered with aphids- food for the 7-spot ladybird

12/7/13-Creeping thistle stem covered with aphids- potential food for the 7-spot ladybird

21/7/13-Meadow Brown butterfly on creeping thistle flowers

11/08/28-wall mason wasps on creeping thistle flower

6-spot Burnet Moth on creeping thistle

3- Marsh Thistle – Cirsium palustre

Family: Asteraceae; Flowering: July to September; Habitat:
Wet habitats, woodland clearings, wet ditches and marshes.

A biennial, medium to tall plant reaching to 1.2 metres, stems spiny-winged to the top, sometimes branched above.

Marsh Thistle

Marsh Thistle flowerheads are a darker purple than those of the creeping thistle

Flower buds are oval and bracts are purplish above and green below – sometimes cottony. Flowerheads are usually purple, 10 to 15 mm across and held in clusters of 2 to 8. Florets are reddish purple and anthers are blue-purple. The stem is winged and spiked. Leaves are linear lanceolate, pinnately lobed and very spiny, mostly unstalked, hairy above.

The pappus is slightly feathery.

This species may be confused with the Welted Thistle – Carduus crispus but can be distinguished by its feathery seeds. Welted Thistle has seeds with down that is unbranched.

The blackberry bramble

29 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by theresagreen in flower folklore, flower mythology, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Wildflowers of Wales

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blackberry bramble, bramble flowers, bramble use in lip work basketry, importance of bramble flowers to insects, insects feeding on bramble flowers

Brambles have been flowering for a while now, but in the last couple of weeks they have reached a peak and many of the tangled shrubs are smothered with blossom. This is wonderful for insects that can gorge themselves on nectar without the need to expend energy flitting between different plants.

Bramble flower

In the British Isles the term brambles is used to describe any rough, tangled prickly shrub, but more specifically applies to the Blackberry bush –Rubus fruticosa.

A huge bramble smothered with blossoms – Little Orme. Click for a larger picture-the bird is a Whitethroat

Bramble bushes have a distinctive growth form. They send up long, arching canes that do not flower or set fruit until the second year of growth. The shrub can easily become a nuisance in gardens, sending down its strong suckering roots amongst hedges and shrubs, but in the wild it has great importance for its conservation and wildlife value.

The flowers attract nectar-feeding butterflies, bees and hoverflies, and the leaves are important food plants for the larvae of several species of Lepidoptera.

A beautiful Tortoiseshell butterfly on bramble flowers

Small skipper (male) on bramble flowers-Bryn Euryn

6-Spot Burnet Moth on bramble flowers

Meadow Brown nectaring on bramble

Common Carder Bee on bramble flowers

Bramble leaves usually have trifoliate or palmately-compound leaves. Old leaves often remain on the stems throughout the winter until new shoots are produced.

Eristalis basking on new leaves of bramble - rubus

April -Eristalis basking on new leaves of bramble

September – Bramble leaves

A ripe blackberry

Bramble fruits are aggregate fruits and each small round berry is called a drupelet. The blackberry flower receptacle is elongate and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an aggregate-accessory fruit.

22/8/11-Bluebottle fly on blackberries- a case for washing them before eating!

Traditional medicinal uses

A child afflicted with whooping, or chin-cough may have been passed through a blackberry or bramble shoot that had rooted naturally at either end; this was a gesture symbolic of rebirth in a perfect state. Herefordshire this treatment was enhanced: the Lord’s Prayer was recited whilst the patient, eating bread and butter, was passed nine times under the bramble arch. Sometimes a rhyme was added:

Under the briar and over the briar, I wish to leave the chincough here.

On the journey home the remains of the bread and butter were given to a passing animal or bird – “but never to a Christian”- and, as the bread was consumed, the cough would disappear. Other childhood diseases, rheumatism and boils were also cured with this procedure.

Another blackberry cure of repute was a burn lotion, made by floating 9 blackberry leaves in water from a holy well.

Mythology and legend

What is probably the earliest recorded parable is Jotham’s parable of “The trees choosing a King.” The first tree to be offered this distinction was the Olive, but the Olive was concerned with the business of producing oil, and so the Vine was approached. The Vine was too busy producing wine, and eventually the Bramble was requested to accept the offer, and the Bramble having nothing better to do, affably agreed.

Blackberries have multiple meanings across religious, ethnic and mythological realms. In all Celtic countries taboos attend the picking of blackberries; mid-Mediterranean folklore claims that Christ’s Crown of Thorns was made of blackberry runners. The deep colour of the berries represents Christ’s blood. They have been used in Christian art to symbolize spiritual neglect or ignorance.

In many English counties blackberries are never picked after Michaelmas Day on September 29th. Legend has it that the blackberry was once beautiful, but was cursed by Lucifer when he fell into the bush when he was forced out of heaven. Every September 30th, with the ripening and darkening of the berries, he is said to variously ‘wave his club over them’, ‘spit on them’, ‘curse them’ or ‘put his cloven hoof on them’.

Some folklore associates the blackberry with bad omens. European stories have claimed they are death fruits with ties to Wicca. They can also symbolize sorrow. In an old proverb they signify haste. A man is so excited to pick the berries that he jumps into the bush and the thorns cause him to lose his eyesight. He regains it, however, upon jumping back out of the bush.

Greek mythology contains a legend similar to this. When Bellerophon, a mortal, tries to ride Pegasus to Olympus, he falls and becomes blind and injured upon landing in a thorny bush. This is his punishment for trying to take the power of the gods. Therefore, the fruit also symbolizes arrogance.

Other Uses

Split bramble stems are traditionally used as binding material for straw in the production of lip work basketry, such as lip work chairs and bee skeps, and sometimes used to protect other fruits (strawberries).

Lip work is a technique where wheat straw is made into coils or ropes and then bound into shape with strips of bramble. In addition to tall backed chairs which protected the occupant from draughts, beehives, corn measures, baskets and trays were made. The photograph of the beautiful traditional straw skep beehive below is from the website of Martin Newton, a present-day maker of lip work basketry pieces. http://www.martinatnewton.com/page2.htm

A traditional lip work bee skep

Meadowsweet

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in flower folklore, flower mythology, Nature, nature photography, Wildflowers of Wales

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filipendula ulmaria, flower folklore, mabinogion, meadowsweet, meadowsweet folklore, medicinal uses of plants

Meadowsweet–Filipendula ulmaria; also known as Queen of the Meadow, Lady of the Meadow, Dollof, Bridewort.; Welsh – Brenhines y Weirglodd

Meadowsweet growing on the sea side of the railway embankment, Colwyn Bay

Family:Rosaceae. Flowering: Late June to September.Distribution: Throughout the British Isles and Western Europe. Habitat: A wide variety of damp places- fens, marshy meadows, stream and riversides, wet rock ledges in mountain areas, but not in very acid bogs.

Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet is a perennial herb, has stems up to 120cm tall often reddish-tinged and dark green pinnate leaves. It bears delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers that are tiny at 4-6mm across, but gathered in large numbers in dense irregularly-formed branched frothy ‘cymes’ or ‘corymbs’ at the stem apices. Leaves are dark green, pinnate, with deeply toothed ovate leaflets, pairs of larger ones (up to 8cm long) alternate up the leaf-stalk with pairs of tiny ones (1-4mm long). The terminal leaflet is usually 3-lobed.

Meadowsweet leaves wet with rain

Etymology

The name ulmaria means “elmlike”. There is no visual resemblance to the elm tree (Ulmus) in any way, but in common with the bark of the slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) meadowsweet contains salicylic acid, which has long been used as a painkiller, and this may be the source of the name. The generic name, Filipendula, derives from filum, meaning “thread” and pendulus, meaning “hanging.” This is thought to describe the root tubers that hang characteristically on the genus, on fibrous roots.

Importance to insects

Meadowsweet is moderately attractive to bees, including bumblebees. The plants play host to numbers of aphids, leafhoppers, mites and caterpillars, so in turn is very attractive to predator insects and spiders, including both crab and jumping spiders; soldier beetles that eat aphids and other insects; plant bugs that prey on leaf beetles; ladybirds and ichneumonid wasps, parasitic wasps that prey on beetles and caterpillars.

Historical and Traditional uses

Meadowsweet has a long history of use by humans. Traces of it have been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, located in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. It is thought that this may have been either from a honey-based mead or flavoured ale placed with food as nourishment for the passed ones onward journey, or that the plant had been placed on the grave as a scented flower. The whole plant has a pleasant taste and flavour, and was venerated by the Druids for flavouring mead. It is still used for this purpose in some Scandinavian varieties of mead. It has also been used to flavour wine, beer, and many vinegars. The flowers can be added to stewed fruit and jams, imparting a subtle almond flavour.

When it was customary to strew floors with rushes and herbs, both to give warmth underfoot and to overcome smells and infections, Meadowsweet was a favoured choice as the leaves are aromatic as well as the flowers, and was reputedly the favourite herb of Queen Elizabeth 1 for that purpose.

A natural black dye can be obtained from the roots.

Folklore

There is some fascinating folklore based around this plant. In some parts of the country it was believed that the heavy scent of the flowers had the power to induce a deep sleep from which a person would never wake. Its sweetness, perhaps not unexpectedly, made it unlucky to bring indoors, and redolent with death; possibly linked to its use as ‘grave’ flower.

The old custom of strewing at weddings gave rise to the alternative name of “bridewort”; the flowers were also used in bridal garlands. Cynics maintained that the plant symbolised courtship and matrimony because of the changing scent of the flower before and after bruising!

In Welsh Mythology, according to the Mabinogion, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd (“flower face”).

Another valued attribute of the plant was that if it was laid on water on St.John’s Day, (most probably June 24th, Midsummer’s Day), it would reveal a thief; a woman if the plant floated, a man if it sank.

Medicinal uses

Meadowsweet has many medicinal properties and a long history as a healing herb. This plant contains the chemicals used to make aspirin, a small section of root, when chewed is a good natural remedy for relieving headaches.The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach.

Chemical constituents include salicylic acid, flavone glycosides, essential oils, and tannins.

Importantly, in 1897, Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin, derived from the species, which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally acetylsalicylic acid, was named “aspirin” by Hoffman’s employer Bayer AG after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria. This gave rise to the class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

The Foxglove – of Fairytales, Myths & Medicine

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by theresagreen in coastal walks, flower folklore, flower mythology, Nature, nature photography, The Wales Coast Path, wildflowers, Wildlife of the Wales Coast Path

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digitalis purpurea, foxglove, medicinal plants, Pembrokeshire coastal path, plants associated with fairies, poisonous wildflowers

June is the month when elegant Foxgloves are at their best in many parts of Wales. I took most of the photographs in this post in Pembrokeshire where they adorn woodlands, roadsides and cliffs of the mainland and some of the offshore islands. Beautiful to behold, poisonous in the wrong hands yet life-saving when used for good, they have a long-held and fascinating place in our natural history.

Foxglove-Digitalis purpuraea

Foxglove–Digitalis purpurea – Welsh – Ffion or Maneg Ellyllyn — The Good People’s Glove

The graceful Foxglove is a downy biennial herb that thrives in acidic soils in a wide range of habitats. In their first year large downy basal leaves are produced, followed in their second year by impressive flower spikes from 3-6 feet (1-2m) tall. The plants die once they have seeded, but if the flowers are picked before they go to seed, the basal leaves will last another year and they will attempt to seed again.

Flowers open first at the base of the stem and graduates upwards

A stand of Foxgloves in a Pembrokeshire woodland

Three basic colours self-seed – pink, purple & white. They can come true to the parent plant where colour forms are isolated, but they cross-pollinate freely & many stands of foxgloves include all three shades.

In a Pembrokeshire woodland

In Wales the Foxglove is a characteristic plant of early summer, thriving on acidic soil in the shady conditions of open woods, woodland clearings and hedge banks. But it also tolerates the open and exposed habitats of moorland and heath margins, sea-cliffs and rocky mountain slopes.

It may also appear where ground has been disturbed, such as in newly cleared woodland, or where the old vegetation has been burnt.

Pembrokeshire Coastal Path

ORIGIN OF THE NAME

There have been many suggestions for the derivation of the name “foxglove”. It is an ancient name and exists in a list of plants as old as the time of Edward III (King of England from 1327-1377). The prefix ‘fox‘ has most likely been commuted over time from “folks”, who to our fourteenth century ancestors were the fairies, but so-called as to speak of them explicitly was believed to get their attention & cause them to do mischief. ‘Glove‘ may have come from the Anglo-Saxon gliew, which was the name for a musical instrument consisting of many small bells. So, put the two together and you could make it ‘Fairy Bells’. However it came about, Foxglove is the English common name we all know and love it by.

There appear to be two Welsh names for the Foxglove, one is Ffion, from which the popular Welsh female name is taken and the other Maneg Ellyllyn which translate as “The Good People’s Glove.” Similar then to Folk’s Glove and its association with fairies.

In Gaelic they were Lus Mor, the Great Herb, for being the most magical of all herbs.

Plants that are widespread & medicinally potent invariably acquire a large number of folk-names, & the foxglove’s many names are a case study in our ancestor’s imaginations.

A whole host of alternative common names reflect the association with fairies Fairy Caps, Fairy Gloves, Fairy Thimbles, Fairy Herb, Fairybells, Fairy-fingers, Goblin Gloves, Fairy Petticoats, Fairyweed.

Another name, Dead Man’s Bells served to warn of the plant’s poisonous disposition.

The names Flopdock, Floppydock, Flop-a-Dock, Flapdock, Popdock, Flop-poppy, Flop-top, Cowflop, Gooseflops, Rabbit’s Flowers or Bunny Rabbits all allude to the foxglove’s large soft downy leaves.

Mythology and legends

One story has it that fairies would hide themselves inside the flowers. Mischievous children, wanting to hear fairy thunder, would hold one of the flower bell then strike the other end on their hand. The poor fairy, rightly upset and probably rather cross, would make a snapping sound, a clap of fairy thunder, while she escaped from her retreat.

Another Welsh legend explains why foxgloves bend and sway so gracefully. It has nothing to do with the wind, but that as the flower is sacred to the fairies, it has the power of recognising them, and indeed all spiritual beings who pass by, and that it bows in deference to them as they waft along.

Foxgloves supposedly bowed to Fairies

IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

At least two great poets, Wordsworth and Tennyson were moved to immortalise the foxglove in words; the former clearly aware of the deadly qualities of the plant. In The Borderers, a tragedy, a woman describes a dream she had:

“My poor Babe
Was crying, as I thought, crying for bread
When I had none to give him; whereupon,
I put a slip of foxglove in his hand,
Which pleased him so, that he was hushed at once:
When, into one of those same spotted bells
A bee came darting, which the Child with joy
Imprisoned there, & held it to his ear,
And suddenly grew black, as he would die.”

Sounds more like a nightmare to me!

Tennyson names the flower in the poem ‘In Memoriam’ –

” …. Bring orchis, bring the foxglove spire…”

and also in ‘The Two Voices’ –

” ….The foxglove cluster dappled bells …”

MODERN MEDICINAL USES

Foxglove-digitalis purpurea. A plant that is beautiful on the outside but toxic at its heart. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

Foxglove is the source of digitalis, derived from several cardiac glycosides produced by the plant, and widely used as a heart medication. It is used to increase cardiac contractility and as an antiarrhythmic agent to control the heart rate, particularly in individuals affected by irregular (and often fast) atrial fibrillation and especially if they have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Which basically translates to it regulates the heartbeat.

The use of Digitalis purpurea extract containing cardiac glycosides for the treatment of heart conditions was first described in English language medical literature by William Withering, in 1785, which is considered the beginning of modern therapeutics.

With careful usage and expert pharmaceutical guidance, doctors have subsequently used digitalis and saved thousands of lives, but it is at the same time a dangerously toxic plant. Used wrongly it can cause heart palpitations, delirium, hallucinations, vomiting, & possibly death.

TRADITIONAL, FOLK & HERBAL MEDICINE

Modern-day herbalists have largely abandoned the use of digitalis because of its narrow therapeutic index and the difficulty of determining the amount of active drug in herbal preparations. Once the usefulness of digitalis in regulating the human pulse was understood, it was employed for a variety of purposes, including the treatment of epilepsy and other seizure disorders, which are now considered to be inappropriate treatments.

The Doctrine of Signatures

The openings of the bells were thought to resemble an open animal’s mouth

Foxglove flowers were supposed to look like an animal’s open mouth. Within the doctrine of signatures this meant it must have some medicinal value in treatment of injuries of the mouth & throat. The speckles in the mouth of the flower were, according to the Doctrine symbolic of inflammation of the throat. Another array of folk-names reflect foxglove’s association with the mouth: Throatwort, Rabbit’s Mouth, Bunny Mouths, Tiger’s Mouth, Duck’s Mouth, Gap-Mouth, & Dragon’s Mouth.

Another, less charming name of Scabbit Dock came about as in Culpepper’s day Foxglove was used in an ointment or shampoo for treating impetigo or “scabby head”.

Midwifery

An association with midwifery probably gave rise to the names Granny’s Gloves or Granny’s Bonnets, & Witch’s or Witches’ Gloves. Witches & grannies, or at least midwives & other herbal practitioners, had many uses for this plant. Dr William Withering, the aforementioned man credited with discovering digitalis as a heart remedy circa 1775, apparently learned of its potency from an unnamed midwife.

September – The dried seedhead of a Foxglove still stands-Conwy Mountain

Lesser Celandine

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by theresagreen in flower folklore, flower mythology, Nature, nature of woodlands, nature photography, wildflowers, Wildflowers of Wales, woodland wildflowers

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early spring flowers, lesser celandine, ranunculus ficularia, woodland flowers

Lesser Celandine- Ranunculus ficularia, also known in English as pilewort, small celandine, smallwort, figwort, brighteye, butter and cheese. In Welsh it is Lygad ebrill.

Lesser celandine-Ranunculus ficaria

The Lesser celandine has been one of my favourite wildflowers since childhood. As a child growing up in Northamptonshire, a part of my walking route to school included a green lane. This was a narrow pathway with grass verges backed by hawthorn hedgerows and used as a short-cut to the village by anyone walking or riding a horse or bike. Behind the hedge on one side was a small field that was often boggy and there was a drainage ditch on the lane side to prevent it flooding. Needless to say it was damp there and generally shady; the perfect place for celandines to thrive. They were the first of the wildlowers to appear here and I looked forward to their appearance avidly. I used to think their shiny golden yellow faces captured some of the sunshine whilst it shone, then held it within their tightly closed petals to keep them warm on cold dull cloudy days. I learnt that these were not flowers to take home to my mum though, as they closed up when picked, but I remember how the sight of them used to gladden my heart, as it still does, signalling that the spring was on its way.

21/2/12-Lesser Celandines, Colwyn Bay

Lesser celandine

The plant itself is small (5-30cm tall). The dark green, shiny, heart-shaped leaves grow spirally arranged around long weak stalks from the base. The leaves are sometimes mottled with light or dark markings; they lie flat on the ground unless held up by surrounding plants.The flowers are bright, glossy yellow, fading to nearly white at the petal base as they age.

The Lesser celandine is one of the first flowering plants to appear at the end of the winter (February to May). Gilbert White, the famed author of ‘The Natural History o Selborne’ reported that the plants came out on February 21, but it is more commonly reported to flower from March until May, and is sometimes called the “spring messenger” as a consequence. The flowers close just before it begins to rain, and are pollinated by bees, such as the Buff-tailed bumble bee, Red-tailed bumble bee, flies and beetles, but very few seeds are typically set. They open when few insects are around so not many seeds are produced and spread is mainly vegetative by tiny bulbils which develop in the leaf axils and these drop onto the soil as the plant dies back.

THE MEANING OF THE NAME

The plant’s common name, lesser celandine, was mistakenly given to it when it was thought to be one and the same plant as the true or greater celandine, to which it bears no resemblance except in the colour of its flowers – both being yellow.

The word celandine comes from the Greek word chelidon, meaning swallow, the greater celandine coming into bloom when these birds arrive, and withering on their departure. The scientific name Ranunculus is Late Latin for “little frog,” from rana “frog” and a diminutive ending. This probably refers to many species being found near water, like frogs. The plant grows from root-tubers, which are said to look like bunches of figs. This explains the second part of the scientific name of the plant, ficaria, which is Latin for fig.

THE CELANDINE IN POETRY

The flower folds its petals on dull and wet days

A number of poems have been written about the celandine. The poet William Wordsworth was very fond of the flower and it inspired him to write three poems including the following, which are the first two verses from his ode to the celandine:

The Lesser Celandine

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, ’tis out again!

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,
Or blasts the green field and the trees distressed,
Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm,
In close self-shelter, like a Thing at rest.

William Wordsworth

Upon Wordsworth’s death it was proposed that a celandine be carved on his memorial plaque inside the church of Saint Oswald at Grasmere, but unfortunately the Greater Celandine Chelidonium majus, was mistakenly used.

THE CELANDINE IN TRADITIONAL HERBAL MEDICINE

The plant used to be known as Pilewort because it was used to treat haemorrhoids. Supposedly, the knobbly tubers of the plant resemble piles, and according to the doctrine of signatures, this resemblance suggests that pilewort could be used to cure piles. The German vernacular Scharbockskraut (“Scurvyherb”) derives from the use of the early leaves, which are high in vitamin C, to prevent scurvy. The plant is widely used in Russia and is sold in most pharmacies as a dried herb.