Into the woods, led by the nose

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Nature of Wales, nature of woodlands, nature photography, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 4 Comments

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common shrew, common spotted orchid, greenbottle flies on shrew carcass, greenbottle fly, honeysuckle, medicinal plants, Pyramidal Orchid

Bryn Euryn’s woodland trail is a circular route that travels more or less around the circumference of the bottom of the hill and is a good one to follow if you want a ‘proper’ walk without too many distractions. That’s not to say there isn’t anything to see; on my walks there is always something that catches my eye, or as happened on one particular evening, my nose!

I had rejoined this trail after my diversion onto the more open hillside where I had earlier watched the butterflies, and by the time I reached there it was late afternoon and a little cooler; just the time to catch the intermittent scent of honeysuckle, which for me is the absolutely perfect fragrance. The fresh perfume of the honeysuckle takes me back to walking through shady summer woods as a child when the heavenly scent brought the plant to my attention and I would always have to find it and inhale more of it. In fact I still do that; I just cannot resist it.

Honeysuckle – Lonicera periclymenum

Honeysuckle clambering up a tall holly shrub

Therapeutic and medicinal uses

I remember being very disappointed when, training as an aromatherapist, I learnt that Honeysuckle is not an essential oil that is practical to use for therapeutic massage. It is very difficult to extract the oil on a commercial basis, so it ends up being very expensive and difficult to obtain in an ‘absolute’ or pure form; any you buy is likely to have been mixed with something else. It is more widely used as a component of perfume. Shame, because the essential oil supposedly has some wonderful properties and if it had been practical to use I probably could have used it by the bucketful!

“Honeysuckle aids one to get past mental regrets, and move forward freely in life. It’s captivating scent is able to instil love and beauty, and banish any fear and sadness brought about by such events as divorce, death, and loneliness. The oil allows one to overcome harshness, indulge in self-renewal, and inspires hope, progress, freedom, and unity.”

Honeysuckle lit by evening sun in a hedgerow, Nevern, Pembrokeshire

Honeysuckle has been used medicinally for thousands of years to treat respiratory conditions, diarrhoea, ease childbirth, and stimulate the flow of energy throughout the body. Aromadendrene, a terpenoid, is a constituent of honeysuckle essential oil, which contributes to the oil’s antimicrobial properties. The terpenoid inhibits growth of micro-organisms, such as, bacteria, fungi, and protozoans. Eugenol, a phenylpropene, which is known to be a restorative and has a palliative effect, meaning it relieves pain and prevents further suffering.

Honeysuckle blossoms

I was soon snapped out of my state of pleasant reminiscence brought about by the aromatic honeysuckle as my olfactory sense was assailed by a far less pleasant smell, immediately recognisable as that arising from something that has died. Never one to shirk the responsibility of recording all aspects of the nature I come across on my wanderings, I followed my nose regardless, although trying not to breathe through it. I soon found the source of the stench: another little shrew had passed away; probably murdered by another cat. It was creating a mighty smell for something so tiny in life, but it would have attracted my attention anyway as there were a dozen or more Greenbottle flies swarming over its tiny body. (Those of a squeamish nature should probably look away now!)

Greenbottle flies on the carcass of a dead shrew

I know it’s not nice, but we all know that nature is not always about pretty flowers, butterflies and birds singing. Everything dies and it is actually interesting to see what benefits from that; it is often insects that are responsible for completing the circle of life. And, sorry, I do find Greenbottle flies very interesting.

Greenbottle Fly- Lucilia sericata

The Common Green bottle fly is a blow-fly, a member of the family Calliphoridae, is the most well-known of the numerous green bottle fly species and found in most areas of the world. It is 10–14 mm long, slightly larger than a housefly, and has brilliant, metallic, blue-green or golden colouration with black markings. It has short, sparse black bristles (setae) and three cross-grooves on the thorax. The wings are clear with light brown veins, and the legs and antennae are black.

Common Greenbottle Fly-Rhos-on-Sea garden

The fly is found feeding on flowers, but is also a common visitor to carrion and faeces. The female greenbottle lays a mass of eggs in a wound, a carcass or corpse, or in necrotic or decaying tissue. (A single female typically lays 150-200 eggs per batch and may produce 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in its lifetime.) The eggs hatch out in about 8–10 hours in warm moist weather, but may take as long as three days in cooler weather.

Greenbottle flies were most numerous on the corpse, but there are two other species there too

Forensic science

Like most Calliphorids, the insect has been heavily studied and its life cycle and habits well documented and L. sericata is an important species to forensic entomologists. One of the first insects to colonise a corpse, the stage of the insect’s development is used to calculate the period of colonization, so that it can be used to aid in determining the time of death of the victim.

Veterinary importance

L. sericata, along with other species of blowfly also makes an impact in a veterinary sense. In the UK and Australia it is commonly referred to as the “sheep blowfly” since sheep are its primary, although not sole host.

In Northern Europe, the fly will lay its eggs in sheep wool. The larvae then migrate down the wool to feed directly on the surface of the animal’s skin, which can cause massive lesions and secondary bacterial infections. In the UK, it is estimated that blowfly strike affects 1 million sheep as well as 80% of sheep farms each year. This causes a huge economic impact in these regions: it costs money to treat infected animals and to take measures to control L. sericata populations.

To end on a pleasanter note, here are some more flowers I found along the woodland trail that same evening:

Foxgloves are not common here, but there were a couple of stems of them; tall now and maybe a little more than half-way to being finished.

Foxgloves are about half-way to being over

Amongst the grass and other tougher plants on the path edge a pretty Common Spotted Orchid pushed through.

A Common Spotted Orchid on the side of the trail

Further along, in quite deep shade I was surprised to find another Pyramidal Orchid.

Another Pyramidal Orchid

Dale beach and the Gann Estuary

29 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by theresagreen in coastal habitat, Nature, nature photography, Pembrokeshire coastal path

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brackish lagoon, coastal wildflowers, Dale, gann estuary, kidney vetch, medicinal plants, mute swan, pickleridge lagoon, shingle beach, stonecrop

We returned home via the village of Dale which is situated on the south eastern tip of the Pembrokeshire Heritage coast and is also on the route of the Coastal Path. Its beach is located on the Milford Haven estuary between St Ann’s Head and St Ishmael’s in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. There is a lot of history attached to the village and surrounding area, but we had come to have a quick look at the unique habitat that lies at the back of its shingle beach.

The view across Dale beach; the refinery at Haverfordwest is just out of sight behind the headland on the left of the photograph

The beach is mainly shingle with some sand at low tide.

The shingle beach is a colourful mixture of red sandstone and grey/green silurian stone

The gritty sand is pink and stones on the beach occur in an infinite variety of shades of pink/red, grey and green

The red soils of the area are derived from old red sandstones seen at Lindsway Bay and Sandy Haven that are some 395 million years old. There are also occasional exposures of even older rocks, aged at 420 million years. The cliff tops are covered with glacial till made of unconsolidated material dumped by melting ice around 20,000 years ago and fields that have been ploughed are visible for miles as the soil is a bright red in colour.

At the back of the shingle beach is a sand ridge and behind that an area of low lying land and the brackish artificial Pickleridge Lagoon, formed by the flooding of gravel pits that operated between the 1950s and 1980s. This has now become established as a saline lagoon and together with the extensive salt marsh in the Gann river valley, the area has become a haven for wildlife, particularly for wading birds and plants.

There were very few birds around today, a few Oystercatchers were out on the tide line and a number of Mute Swans on the edges of the lagoons, but other than that we saw only crows, a pair of raven flying overhead and a magpie or two.

A beautiful mute swan on the edge of the lagoon

There are some interesting plants growing here though, including the largest expanse of yellow flowered Kidney Vetch I have ever seen.

View across the grassy meadow and lagoon

Grasses

The largest expanse of kidney vetch I have seen

Kidney Vetch – Anthyllis vulneraria

Kidney Vetch-Anthyllis vulneraria

The small yellow flowers of Kidney Vetch are held in a cluster atop little woolly cushions, at first glance resembling a clover. The plant flowers from June to September and is a distinctive feature of sand dunes, chalk grassland and cliffs across the UK where it may spread to cover bare ground if it finds the right conditions.

The flowers are mainly yellow, but can also be found in orange and red forms. Each flower has its own hairy calyx (containing the sepals), giving the flower cluster its woolly appearance. The leaves of Kidney Vetch are divided into narrow leaflets that are silky and white underneath.

Kidney Vetch & the Small Blue Butterfly

Kidney Vetch is the sole foodplant for the larvae of the Small Blue Butterfly – a seriously declining insect which is classified as a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Although Kidney Vetch itself is not threatened, the habitats in which it grows are becoming fragmented and being lost at a rapid rate; for example, it’s estimated that we’ve lost 80% of our chalk grassland over the last 60 years.

Traditional medicine

Kidney Vetch has long been used in herbal medicine as an astringent; the name ‘vulneraria‘ means wound-healer and applying it to wounds reduces bleeding. As the common name implies it is also used in the treatment of kidney disorders.

A Stonecrop – Sedum caeruleum

Further information:

The habitat formed here and the wildlife it supports have been the subject of several field studies over the years that have included the Feeding Patterns of Wading Birds on the Gann Flat by the Field Studies Council in 1973 http://www.field-studies-council.org/fieldstudies/documents/vol3.5_91.pdf that was followed up thirty years afterwards in 1992 http://www.eco-challenge-xtra.org. ; another on invertebrates The Gann Flat, Dale; Studies on the Ecology of a Muddy beach and another on the flora and ferns http://www.eco-challenge-xtra.org/fieldstudies/documents/vol1.3_18.pdf

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

Bumblebee in red clover

29 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by theresagreen in bumblebees, flower folklore, Nature, nature photography, Old Colwyn, Wildflowers of Wales

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bombus terrestris, buff-tailed bumblebee, meadow flowers, medicinal plants, red clover, trifolium pratense, wayside flowers

There is a beautiful patch of red clover growing alongside the road leaving Old Colwyn and I just had to stop and have a closer look on my way home on Friday before it is past its best.

Red Clover- Trifolium pratense

Red Clover –Trifolium pratense is a species of clover that is native to Europe, Western Asia and northwest Africa, but widely planted and naturalised in many other regions.

Red clover is said to be the national flower of Denmark, although apparently not officially designated . It is however the state flower of Vermont. “No. 159 of the Acts of 1894, effective February 1, 1895, designated the Red Clover as the official State Flower. Both an integral part of many a cultivated hay field and a common sight along numerous Vermont roadsides, the Red Clover is symbolic of Vermont’s scenic countryside generally and of its dairy farms in particular. Oddly enough, however, Trifolium pratense is not a native of Vermont but was “naturalized” from Europe”. http://www.50states.com

The dark pink/purple flowers are held in dense rounded heads and have two leaves just below the top of the peduncle

An herbaceous, short-lived perennial plant, with hairy erect stems; variable in height, growing to 20–80 cm tall. The leaves are alternate, trifoliate (with three leaflets), each leaflet 15–30 mm long and 8–15 mm broad, green with a characteristic pale crescent in the outer half of the leaf; the petiole is 1–4 cm long, with two basal stipules.

The plant was named Trifolium pratense by Carolus Linnaeus in 1753. Trifolium simply means ‘three-leaves’ and Pratense is the Latin for “of meadows”.

Agricultural uses

High in vegetable protein, red clover is widely grown as a forage crop and is also valued for its nitrogen fixation, which increases soil fertility and is used as a green manure crop. It has become naturalised in many temperate areas, including the Americas and Australasia as an escape from cultivation.

Medicinal uses

Red clover has been reported to be used for a variety of medicinal purposes, such as the treatment of bronchitis, burns, cancers, ulcers, sedation, asthma, and syphilis. These days its use may be recommended to alleviate symptoms of menopause; red clover contains isoflavones (oestrogen-like compounds) which may relieve the discomfort of ‘hot flushes’.

Folklore

Clover was an ancient protective herb. The Druids considered the trefoils, symbolic of the eternal verities of Earth, Sea and Sky. The Celts saw the clover as a sacred, magical plant. A 4-leafed clover is a sign of good luck and is a charm against snakes, witches, the devil and other dangerous creatures. It is also said to give the gift of second sight, enabling one to see fairies. In the language of flowers clover means “think of me” or “be mine”.

Pollinator plant

Buff-tailed Bumblebee – Bombus terrestris

Buff-tailed Bumblebee-Bombus terrestris on red clover

Woodland plants may be pungent, prickly and even poisonous

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by theresagreen in nature of woodlands, nature photography, woodlands

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black hairstreak butterfly, blackthorn, bluebell, herb robert, medicinal plants, Patrick Barkham, poisonous wildflowers, ramsons, wild garlic, woodland flowers

Spring is progressing rapidly and now at the end of April, the great majority of woodland plants have come into flower, racing to achieve the maximum amount of light possible before the leaf canopy thickens and blots it out. In a more ‘normal’ year, they would reach their peak in May in southern England and a little later further north, but this year everything seems to be happening that bit earlier.

In local woodlands Ramsons, or wild Garlic has been showing blooms for several weeks now and is fast approaching its flowering peak. A wild relative of chives, all parts of the plant have a characteristic garlic or onion scent, and where there are masses of them their pungent scent fills the air; you can often smell their presence before seeing them.

Ramsons, Wild Garlic – Alium ursinum -Fairy Glen, Old Colwyn

Ramsons, Wild Garlic – Allium ursinum

Other common names include buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, and bear’s garlic

The flower heads are enclosed within a papery two-lobed spathe

Native to Europe and Asia, Ramsons may be found growing in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions. It is a perennial herb, growing from a narrow white bulb that produces two or three oval-elliptic leaves with pointed tips and long stalks that twist through 180 degrees. The leaves are similar to those of the lily of the valley and where the two plants are known to grow together, care must be taken not to confuse them should you be picking them to eat; those of the lily of the valley are highly poisonous.

16412tgwlr-ramsons flower visited by a hoverfly

A Ramsons flower visited by a tiny hoverfly. The flower-heads consist of six to twenty white star-like flowers held in dense flat-topped umbels atop a bare triangular scape (stem). Each flower is 16-20mm across and has six stamens.

Ramsons leaves are edible and are fashionable currently as ‘foraged food’; they have been traditionally used as an addition to a green salad, boiled as a vegetable, added to soup, or as an ingredient for pestoin lieu of basil. The bulbs and flowers are also very tasty.

A pretty clump of Bluebells – hyacintha non-scripta

A bluebell is visited by a small hoverfly

Bluebells are probably the most characteristic of all woodland flowers. The magnificent carpet of blue its massed blooms produce, sometimes spreading throughout an entire woodland is a glorious spectacle. It epitomises spring woodlands, but is also a special feature of the British Isles and a rarity over most of continental Europe, either because the winters are too cold or the summers are too hot and dry.

The flowers are indisputably beautiful and release a lovely perfume, but the small bulbs they spring from are rather poisonous if eaten. Traditional medicinal uses of the bulb are based upon their diuretic and styptic properties. The toxic substances they contain also made them useful for a more unusual and practical purpose, as a source of glue used in bookbinding; apparently the toxins discouraged silverfish from eating them. The toxicity may also be the origin of the superstitious belief that anyone who wanders into a ring of bluebells will fall under fairy enchantment and die soon after. Now I must confess that last little snippet of superstition was passed down in country areas well into my childhood- we lived on the edge of a wood, part of which was (happily still is) carpeted with bluebells in May and I spent many happy hours wandering through them. I was always very careful to make sure there were none growing in a ring.

Shrubs and bushes form the under-story level below the trees – they are woody but not normally tall enough to reach the woodland canopy. The blackthorn and hawthorn are two closely related shrubs, both members of the rose family and both contributing a great deal to our countryside. The blackthorn is usually the first of the two to flower and is familiar for its mass of white flowers produced in early spring before the leaves appear and for the purple sloes in autumn.

Sloe, Blackthorn – Prunus spinosa

The Blackthorn or sloe – Prunus spinosa is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is also locally naturalised in New Zealand and eastern North America.

It is a deciduous large shrub or small tree growing to 5 m tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches. The shrub protects itself from animal consumption with particularly long and very tough thorns, which has led to a long traditional use as boundary hedging around fields in Northern Europe and Britain, to contain animals.

The flowers are 1.5 cm diameter, with five creamy-white petals; they are produced shortly before the leaves in early spring, and are hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated.

The leaves are oval, 2 – 4.5cm long and 1.2-2cm across, with a serrated margin.

Blackthorn is the larval food plant of several butterflies, including the Black Hairstreak (Strymondia pruni), which feeds on both the leaf buds and mature leaves of the shrub. This butterfly is a rare species in Britain, restricted only to ‘a narrow belt of mature woodland areas, between Oxford and Peterborough.’ Diversifying a little, there’s a fascinating account of one man’s quest to find this butterfly, together with the rest of our British species in a book I have in my collection titled ‘The Butterfly Isles – A Summer in Search of our Emperors and Admirals’, written by Patrick Barkham. I’d love to know if anyone else has read it; I really enjoyed it, but it seems to have had mixed reviews.

Back to the plants. I’ve mentioned Dog’s Mercury in an earlier post, but didn’t say anything about it. It is actually quite an interesting one as its a bit of a beast appearing alongside the host of beauties featuring in our woodlands at this time of year.

To begin with the name, a ‘dog’s’ plant is traditionally one with no medicinal uses and it may have obtained this name to contrast it with annual mercury which was used in cleansing enemas. Other slightly less common names are ‘Adder’s Meat’ and ‘Lasting Mercury’. The Mercurialis is open to some debate, although most sources I have come across favour Pliny who said the plant is named after Mercury, the messenger of the gods, who discovered it. The word ‘mercury’ itself is, however, said to be related to ‘merx’ meaning ‘wares’. With its alleged property of being able to determine the sex of an unborn child, it may be that this plant was traded and was ‘merx’.

29/4/12 – Dog’s mercury is fully grown now and flowering

The plant is poisonous; it contains methylamine, trimethylamine, saponins and a volatile oil. This would give it emetic and purgative properties, meaning consumption would most probably lead to nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Larger doses cause lethargy, jaundice, painful urination (apparently by making the urine acid) and coma before death. Reported instances of poisoning are few, perhaps because the plant is not particularly attractive and also because it had no tradition of medicinal use.

Pretty pink-flowered Herb Robert – geranium robertianum

Another of my all-time favourite little woodland plants is also beginning to appear, the pretty delicate and highly aromatic little Herb Robert. It is a common species of cranesbill in Europe, Asia, North America, and North Africa, and in Britain it is by no means confined to woodlands and may turn up anywhere it can get a hold, even on stony seashores.

The pungent aroma of the leaves is said to act as an insect deterrent and it does seem to be that no insect pest bothers it; it has traditionally been used in bedding for animals for that reason.

Herb Robert is known to have many medicinal qualities, it is astringent, antibiotic, antiviral, styptic, tonic, diuretic, digestive, sedative and antioxidant. Of these properties, the main action of the herb is regarded to be astringent, which gives it the ability to treat external conditions such as bruises and skin irritations. From medieval times the herb has been applied as a compress to stop bleeding and heal wounds and because of its astringency it is also used to treat diarrhoea.