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
Super-Impressive...
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