Common Toadflax, Purple Toadflax and Ivy-leaved Toadflax

• Common Toadflax, Linaria vulgaris is the only native here. 
• Purple Toadflax, Linaria purpurea  was introduced to gardens from Italy and recorded in the wild from around 1830. 
• Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis was probably an accidental introduction on imported marble slabs from Italy and recorded in the wild and spreading by 1640. 

All are in the Veronicaceae family.

Common Toadflax, Linaria vulgaris

This distinctive, showy yellow spike was on a rough grassy track verge near Woolhampton, Berkshire. It is supposedly very common but I rarely see it. There were only two spikes about two feet apart but enough! The blooms are snap dragon-like, 2 lipped, yellow with a large orange-yellow boss on the lower lip; the spur is more or less straight.

The narrow leaves are strap-shaped and grey-green. It was a weed in Flax crops (looking like Flax, Linum, until the flowers developed) and Linnaeus named it after flax. The toad part of the name appears to be linked to the shape of the flower resembling both a small toad and its mouth when wide open.

Local names seem to reflect the shape in Gaping Jack (Somerset) and Lion's Mouth (Devon) and Rabbit-flower (Devon and USA). Many names like Bacon and Eggs (Wiltshire) refer to the colour.

The apothecaries' name was Urinalis as the colour suggested urine. It was used as a diuretic and  presumably the colour also suggested it as a treatment for jaundice. During its long history in herbal medicine the leaves were used to make a laxative tea and an ointment for skin diseases.

Purple Toadflax, Linaria purpurea

A common garden escape. This one probably is such on a village bank near Monmouth. The tall slender spikes of snapdragon-like flowers are distinctive. There are darker purplish veins on the corolla. The stems are usually purplish and leaves strap shaped. The lower leaves grow in whorls.

Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Cymbalaria muralis

This is likely to have been imported to London in 1640 on Italian marble slabs. As garden walls went up apace in the next 300 years it was a good time for a species that likes growing between rocks and stones. It acquired the name Oxford Weed because it became so well established on the walls of Oxford colleges. It was popular as an ornamental up to the end of the nineteenth century but is no longer deliberately planted. These photographs were taken in Abergavenny and my garden.

The leaves are glossy and usually 5 lobed with palmate veins. Solitary flowers are lilac (I have seen white ones in St David's, Pembrokeshire) with a yellow spot. There is a short curved spur. They are solitary in the leaf axils. 

The flower stalks bend towards the light, but as the fruit develops the stalks gradually recurve towards the growing surface so the seeds can lodge in any likely space or crack and establish a new plant. I hope this can be seen happening below. It certainly explains, along with some rooting at lower nodes, the successful spread of this plant.

The Latin name Cymbalaria refers to the shape of the leaves which were thought to resemble cymbals. Local names include Creeping Jenny, Mother of Millions and Nanny Goat's Mouths in Devon alone. 

It tastes like watercress and has been eaten in salads and the flowers give a clear but not permanent yellow dye.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have found out something new about these common, well known  plants.

Acknowledgements 

Harrap's Wild Flowers

Stace 4

The Englishman's Flora Grigson

Flora Britannica Richard Mabey

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk

https://www.first-nature.com/

http://botanical.com/

http://seasonalwildflowers.com/

Perforate St John's-wort, Hairy St John's-wort, Marsh St John's-wort, Vervain and Yarrow

When I started researching this blog it was to be on the three St John's-worts, Hypericaceae, and I already knew that Perforate had a long history as a plant of magic and medicine. I quickly discovered that there were at least nine herbs of St John and as I had recently seen two of them, Vervain and Yarrow, I decided to include them. I had an amazing journey of discovery ahead. I have had to summarise the lore and history as a lengthy blog could probably be done on each. 

Perforate St John's-wort, Hypericum perforatum

A native, found here in a Gloucestershire car park, is one of the most famous of European plants in white magic but I will deal with the botanical details first.

The bright yellow petals are at least twice as long as the sepals which are narrow and pointed. Stems are round with 2 opposite raised ridges.

Sepals and petals have a few stalkless, black glands.

The abundant translucent dots in the leaves are the main ID feature for me. These are resin glands. The dots were interpreted as this herb being a remedy for wounds. It has been used to ease a wide variety  of physical conditions including dysentery and is now mostly used to prevent depression and to ease burns and wounds. 

This plant, which had been known from pagan times, was later given a name from Christian culture.

It is likely a pagan rite was adopted by Christianity. The plant was picked on the morning of June 23rd, with the other Herbs of St John, before sunrise while still wet with dew. In the evening fires were lit and the flowers smoked to make them more efficacious in medicine and in protecting farm animals, horses and men against all evil. The smoke drifted across the fields and protected all it touched from lightning, drought and field fires.

Hairy St John's-wort, Hypericum hirsutum

Another native, this was growing on a woodland ride near Monmouth.

The stems and leaves are conspicuously hairy. The leaves are strongly veined with many translucent dots.

The petals are a pale yellow with stalked black glands on petals and sepals. These can be seen here.

Marsh St John's-wort, Hypericum elodes

This grows in mats around the lake at Woorgreens Nature Reserve near Coleford, in the Forest of Dean. The leaves are softly and densely hairy. The flowers do not open widely and on my first visit on a grey day they were tightly closed! The stems creep and the flower stems are erect. There are reddish glandular hairs on the flowers but no black glands on the plant.

Vervain, Verbena officinalis

Mabey says this plant of the Verbenaceae family is 'scrawny and nondescript'! I don't see it very often so always enjoy it. I found it in a car park in Gloucestershire and Gerard's note that it is found in 'untilled places, neere unto hedges, highwais and ditches' still holds true.

The stems spread and the flowers open 1 -2 at a time. The corolla is split at the mouth into 5 lobes divided between a 2 lobed upper lip and a 3 lobed lower lip. 

Leaves are opposite (upper without stalks) but have narrow wings.The stems are four angled.

It has been cultivated in the UK since the Stone Age and was extensively grown in the Middle Ages as a medicinal plant. Garlands of it were worn on St John's Eve. It was prescribed for wounds, headaches, stones, eye troubles, childbirth and many other conditions: in fact a cure all. On the Isle of Man a piece of the herb was frequently sewn into clothing for protection. It was traditionally associated with the gods of war and gun flints were sometimes boiled with rue and Vervain to make them more effective. In 1767 a publication on the virtues of Vervain went into 16 editions in 10 years.

Gerard was uneasy about its reputation of magical properties and writes 'Many odde olde wives tales are written of Vervain' and Michael Drayton wrote in 1627  'Therewith her Vervain and her Dill, that hindereth witches of their will...'

The Church said it grew under the Cross at Calvary which could be reflected in the name Holy Herb in Somerset.

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium

The final Herb of St John in this post: a commonplace native much overlooked plant of the Asteraceae family and perhaps the one with the most surprising history. A powerful herb in Anglo-Saxon times associated with divination rituals, used as a charm against bad luck and illness. It was used as a staunching herb and was called Carpenter's Grass in places. It was a wound herb particularly recommended for wounds caused by iron. Gerard's Herbal associates it with Achilles who staunched the bleeding of his warriors' wounds with it and who gave his name to it.

Grigson says the Irish hang it in houses on St John's Eve to avert illness. An old German name was 'Salvation of all damage'. Will you ever look at this plant in the same way again? It is an ingredient in some modern rescue remedies or emergency essences.

The flowers are in dense flat-topped clusters and the anthers are orange. 

The foliage is finely cut and gives rise to 'millefolium'. The stem is angular.

There is so much folklore associated with these plants I have only been able to scratch the surface of traditional and modern beliefs.

More info can be found in my sources and in many other books and webpages. Happy hunting!

According to Grigson Herbs of St John include not just Perforate St John's-wort, Vervain, and Yarrow but Mugwort, Greater Plantain, Corn Marigold, Dwarf Elder, Ivy and Orpine or Stonecrop.

Acknowledgements

Harrap's Wild Flowers

Stace 4

Grigson An Englishman's Flora 

Mabey Flora Britannica

https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/

http://seasonalwildflowers.com/

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/

https://botanical.com/

https://www.healthyhildegard.com/

Tansy, Orange Balsam, Yellow Water-lily, Common Fleabane, Gypsywort and Yellow Loosestrife

On the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and near Aldermaston on the Kennet and Avon Canal, I found a mixture of aquatic plants and those which just find the canal bank a suitable habitat. The first three entries were found near Sharpness. 

Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare

This member of the Asteraceae family, found on rough grassland often near water, maybe a native or of ancient introduction. Its flat-topped clusters of flowers are distinctive. The yellow disk-florets are tightly packed and button like. There is a small depression in the centre of each. The marginal ray-florets are inconspicuous, though can be seen here. 

The leaves are fern-like, pinnate with toothed leaflets.

The local names reflect the appearance : Bachelor's Buttons in Somerset, Buttons in Yorkshire and Parsley Fern in Devon. 

It has been used medicinally and as a flavouring since at least medieval times. Culpepper thought it both aided conception and prevented miscarriage. The scent and bitter taste were used as repellents: to keep mice away from corn, flies away from meat and even worms away from corpses. This last is how Linnaeus explained tanacetum, the 'deathless plant' from the Greek athanasia. Gerard preferred the explanation that the flowers 'do not speedily wither'. I think I'll go with Gerard!

It was sufficiently important to be taken to New England with the settlers. 

Orange Balsam, Impatiens capensis

In contrast to Tansy which was taken to America this was introduced to British gardens from North America and first recorded in the wild in 1822. Americans call it Kicking Colt and Jewel Weed, and used it against warts and rashes. It spreads through a highly efficient seed dispersal mechanism: seeds are light and corky, floating on water like tiny coracles, Richard Mabey says, until they land on a muddy bank. 

This plant was growing in a marina mooring and had obviously settled in nicely!

The blooms are orange, heavily blotched reddish and unique. The pouch-like lower sepal ends in a spur that is bent double. Leaves are 3-9 cm long and are toothed. It is a member of the Balsaminaceae family.

Yellow Water-lily, Nuphar lutea

This native water-lily from the Nymphaeaceae family is better able to cope with damage from water traffic than the White Water-lily, thus it is happy on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. It grows from a massive rootstock.

The flowers are 3-6 cm across and held a few cm above the water. The 5-6 sepals form the cup flower, the petals below are not visible here as I would have had to swim to see them. The castle shaped capsule which will contain the seeds can be seen. This flower is well above the water level as it has yet to mature. The central styles radiate from the centre of the disc. Wildflowerfinder website (link below) has great photos of these features. 

The floating leaves are leathery, shiny green and oval.

Local names include Blobs or Waterblobs in Dorset and Brandy Bottle in number of counties including Berkshire probably alluding to the slightly alcoholic smell of the flower and the shape of the capsule.

The rhizomes were steeped in tar and applied against baldness.

Common Fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica

A native plant and of the Asteraceae family this specimen was growing on the Kennet and Avon Canal bank near Aldermaston. It is patch-forming with cottony-hairy, slightly greyish foliage and large, golden-yellow flowers in loose, flat-topped clusters. Leaves are wrinkled and strap-shaped.

It was believed the smoke from burning Common Fleabane drove away fleas and as it is a comparatively close relative of the species which supply the insecticide pyrethrum there may be good evidence for this. Pulex is Latin word for flea hence pulicaria. Linnaeus called it dysenterica having been told by a Russian general it cured dysentery in his troops. 

Gypsywort, Lycopus europaeus

Dense whorls of tiny white flowers which are spotted purple on an upright angular stem make this native from the Lamiaceae family very noticeable on the canal bank. Two stamens project from the corolla. Leaf margins are cut into large jagged teeth on the upper leaves, becoming narrow pointed lobes at base of lower leaves.

The plant gives a good, fast black dye and the name is reputed to arise from the belief that gypsies used it to dye their skins. There is no evidence for this and the story which became widespread having begun in 1578 is probably apocryphal. 

In the past Gypsywort, also known as Water Horehound, was used as a sedative.

Yellow Loosestrife,  Lysimachia vulgaris

A native, of the Primulaceae family and is no relation to Purple-loosestrife, Lythrum salicara written about in the last blog. They are sometimes found growing together.

The petals are joined together at the base but separate at the top, forming a cup shaped flower. There are 5 stamens with large yellow anthers and one green style. The sepals, the calyx-teeth, have narrow golden fringes and the style becomes more obvious as the anthers fade.

It is a tall plant and had formed here a sizeable patch at least 1.5 m across. It is softly hairy with leaves opposite or in whorls of 3-4 around the stem.  They are oval-lanceolate with tiny yellow gland-dots along the edges just about visible in the above photo.

Local names include Willow-herb and Willow-wort in Somerset. The plant was used to check bleeding.

Acknowledgements

Stace 4

Harrap's Wild Flowers

The Englishman's Flora Grigson

Flora Britannica Richard Mabey

https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/

https://botanical.com/

http://seasonalwildflowers.com/

https://exclassics.com/herbal/herbalintro.htm

Skullcap, Purple-loosestrife, Arrowhead, Marsh Woundwort, Meadowsweet

All these are to be found on the banks of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal near Abergavenny.

Skullcap, Scutellaria galericulata

Native and from the Lamiaceae family. The flowers are bright blue with a white spotted inside, in pairs at the base of the leaves. Calyx is two lipped, the upper lip with an erect flange on its back. Both flowers point in the same direction. The corolla is strongly curved up from the base. The upper lip is hooded, the lower flattened. Sprawling on the bank it is easily overlooked, and in fact Grigson says it went unrecorded in England until the sixteenth century. 

It did acquire the names Hoodwort and Helmet Flower. 

Purple-loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria

Native and from the Lythraceae family, this plant is very noticeable and forms extensive patches on the canal bank. Flowers are in whorls in the axils of the leaf-like bracts and the stems are square. Petals are reddish-purple with crimson veins.

The plant is trimorphic - a new word for me and meaning occurring in three forms - referring here to the position of the stamens, and length of the style: short, medium and long. There are 12 stamens divided into 2 groups and which are at the levels not occupied by the stigma. The style on this plant appears to be long. The Seasonal Wild Flowers website (link below) has authoritative photos on this.

It was given the name Purple Loosestrife in 1548 by William Turner. As ever there is some combining of theories of the original naming of the plant. Pliny describes a lysimachia with purple flowers, taken to be Lythrum salicaria. He says it was named after Lysimachos, a king of Thrace, Macedonia and Asia Minor who is said to have calmed a mad ox by feeding it a member of the genus. Lusimachos, however, also means 'dissolving strife' and Turner called this plant Purple Loosestrife. (I hope to have Yellow Loosestrife in my next blog.)

Herbalists used it to alleviate diarrhoea, dysentery, fevers, sore throats, ulcers and sores.

Arrowhead, Sagittaria sagittfolia

Gerard called this Water Archer and it has the name Adder's Tongue in Devon. The upper, aerial leaves are arrow shaped, prominently veined. Stems are angular. The flowers are three petalled and petals have a purple wash at their base. They are held in erect spikes on short stalks. Anthers are purple and numerous.

In Devon a strengthening tea was made, always out of nine leaves.

It is from the Alismataceae family, Water-plantains.

Marsh Woundwort, Stachys palustris

This native is from the Lamiaceae family. Gerard praises with some wonder the power of this Wound Herb. He witnessed the recovery of a severely injured man who cut his leg to the bone when using a scythe.  The man lost much blood but healed the wound with leaves he crushed and applied to himself. Richard Mabey says it was the most highly regarded of all the Wound Herbs.

The flowers are pinkish-purple and the leaves on the central and upper stem stalkless and narrowly spear-shaped. The leaves, for me, are the main feature to separate this from Hedge Woundwort.

Meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria

A very familiar plant from the Rosaceae family ends the blog: a native plant of damp places. The flowers are, of course, in frothy creamy-white clusters and are heavily scented. Stamens are very prominent. Leaves are cut into pairs of oval, toothed leaflets and alternate with several tiny leaflets which can just be seen here. Stems are reddish.

Meadowsweet was a plant once used to flavour mead (Culpepper thought a leaf of Meadowsweet also gave a fine relish to a cup of claret) and it is possible that the association with meadow in the name came from confusion over the words in OE for mead the drink, and meadow. 

As a herbal remedy it was used against haemorrhage and malaria, a disease once common in England. It was also much used as a strewing herb to freshen the floors of homes. It may have been both the smell of the flowers and the antiseptic aroma of the crushed leaves that made it so popular.

This completes the look at the native plants on a short stretch of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal near Abergavenny.

Acknowledgements:

Harrap's Wild Flowers

Stace 4

Grigson The Englishman's Flora 

Richard Mabey Flora Britannica

http://seasonalwildflowers.com/

https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/

http://botanical.com/