Leaves....

John Muir (1838-1914), an American (Scottish-born) naturalist and conservationist, once commented:

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."

What a wonderfully and timely inspirational thought, although my mountain climbing days are over....however, it makes me want to trek up Pen Hill straight away!

I love leaves and there is no better time of year to look closely at the myriad types, shapes, and colours on show. I took a stroll the other day when the sun was shinning but on its way down to the horizon. I hope you enjoy these few shots.

Some multi-coloured leaves....

Some green leaves....

Some yellow leaves....

Some leaves with back lighting....

Some leaves with blotches....

Some leaves on their way to the great leaf pile in the sky...!

Some red leaves....

Oh, and one grey leaf....!

PS...I got the order a bit wrong towards the end there but I could not face deleting it all and starting again!!

The ivy league....

Ivy (Hedera helix), perhaps one of the most overlooked of plants in that it is so common place in the country and in urban areas, growing along the ground, up trees and shrubs or up any wall or post wherever it takes root. It is just there and not really noticed or remarked upon. In fact it is quite a complicated plant.

The are numerous variations in shape and colour of the plant's leaves depending on the pertaining environmental factors but there are basically two types of leaf as seen in the first three shots below. The more widely recognised leaves in the first two shots are the juvenile leaves on non-flowering stems, generally at the bottom of the plant and have 3-5 lobes. The mature leaves (third and fourth shots) have no lobes but can be wavy. They appear towards the top of the plant and carry the flowers.

The flowers appear at the top of the plant the light is good - woodland varieties and those creeping along the bottom of hedges do not flower. They are unremarkable at first glance but a closer look will reveal a quite handsome flower with 5 greenish petals and 5 yellow stamens. In Autumn they release abundant nectar and are visited by a wide range of insects - the caterpillars of the Holly Blue butterfly feed on the leaves. The berries appear later in Autumn at first as green nodules which increase in size and turn black - John Gerard records the berries as being ripe after the Winter Solstice.

Edible and medicinal uses

The plant has no edible use - the berries are poisonous. John Gerard recorded an infusion of water in which the leaves have been "steeped" as being a treatment for "...sore and smarting waterish eies [eyes]." Nicholas Culpepper recorded a number of uses for the flowers leaves and berries as treatments for lax and bloody flux, a prevention / treatment of the plague, a provocation of the urine and women's courses, problems of the spleen, ache or stitch, long standing headaches, old ulcers, burns and scalds.

More recently the use of the parts of Ivy has not been recommended as it can cause blood-cell destruction or if the berries are used externally skin blisters can result. However, an infusion of dry leaves in water can be used to treat gout, rheumatic pain, coughs and whooping cough. A warm compress can also be used to treat burns and cuts.

Folklore

There is quite a bit of folklore relating to Ivy...too much to relate here. This was often in conjunction with Holly, the medieval carol, The Holly and the Ivy, being an obvious and well-known example. There were also allusions to the ever present and ongoing battle between the sexes. The Holly, dominant and prickly, was the male plant. Ivy, clinging and compliant, was the female flower (not my interpretation I hasten to add!).

Ivy was sacred to Dionysus and Bacchus, the gods of wine. It was often hung outside inns or vintners to indicate that good wine could be had within. A trail of ivy leaves laid across a drunkard's path was though to bring him (or her??) to his senses. Ivy (as the feminine plant) was thought to bring good fortune to the women of a household. A leaf taken from the leftovers of church decorations apparently promoted the birth of twins. Ivy growing vigorously on a house was meant to protect the occupants from witchcraft and the evil eye. Conversely, if the plant withered it cold mean disaster for a household - infertility, lack of heirs or financial problems. There is more but I think you get the picture!

Shakespeare makes three references to ivy. In "A Winter's Tale" the Shepherd says, "They have scared away two of my best sheep; if anyhow I find them 'tis by the seaside browsing of ivy". Shakespeare twice draws similes from ivy. In A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act iv, Scene 1) Titania, when caressing Bottom, compared herself to "female ivy enringing the barky fingers of the elm". In The Tempest (Act i, Scene 2), Prospero said of his usurping brother, "He was the ivy which had hid my princely trunck and suck'd my verdure out on't".

Again, don't ask me to attempt to delve into the deep and dark thinking behind Shakespeare's usages here!

Field Poppy.....facts and fables....

The Field (or Wild) Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) - a beautiful sight in the fields, by the roadside or anywhere where the soil has been recently disturbed - next time you see some major roadworks just watch to see which plant is first to show itself in the roadside soil. The flowers shed their petals after only one day but a vigorous plant an produce more than 400 flowers in succession during the summer. Field Poppies are not so widespread as they once were due to the use of pesticides and more thorough cleaning of corn seed. Another name for the plant is corn-rose due to its longtime association with corn fields - Ceres, the Roman Goddess of corn was depicted wearing a wreath of field poppies.


Medicinal uses

John Gerard seems to have been somewhat sceptical as to the efficacy of the field poppy - "Most men being led by false experiment than reason, commend the floures [flowers] against the Pleurisie, giving to drinke as soon as the paine comes, either the distilled water or syrup....And yet many times it happens, that the paine ceaseth by that means, though hardly sometimes." In other words - it seems to work but not always very effectively!

Culpepper refers to wider use in the treatment of catarrh and coughs, hoarseness of the throat and loss of voice. He also states that, "Boiled in wine and drank, the black seed stays the flux of the belly and women's courses. The poppy heads, boiled in water, are given to procure rest and sleep."

Modern uses are for the treatment of coughs, asthma, bronchitis, catarrh, whooping cough and angina as well as inducing sleep.

Folklore

In his book, "The Folk-lore of Plants". T F Thiselton Dyer refers to a romantic use for the poppy when talking about love charms - "Among some of the ordinary flowers in use for love divination may be mentioned the poppy, with its 'prophetic leaf'....."

The best known reference to the Field Poppy is, though, as the flower of remembrance. In her book, "The Folklore of Plants", Margaret Baker states, "Poppy, the memorial flower, springs up quickly after soil disturbance, sometimes within twenty four hours. When the field of Waterloo was ploughed, millions of scarlet poppies grew just as they would one hundred years later in Flanders after the First World War.

William Shakespeare also makes a reference to the poppy. In Othello, Act iii, Scene 3, Iago has says

"........Not poppy, nor mandragora,

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world.

Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep

Which thou own'd'st yesterday."

Don't' ask me to explain the context....my knowledge of Shakespeare is very limited! However, clearly this is a reference to one of the poppy's medicinal uses. The reference to mandragora is thought to be to the opium poppy (Papaver Somniferum). In Shakespeare's day, and before then, the opium poppy, which is mauve, was cultivated for its beauty as a garden plant, as it is today.

Bluebell......facts and fables

The Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) - part of the Lily family, has got to be one of our most evocative flowers. In fact, when Plantlife did the County Flower survey a few years ago - people could vote for the flower they wanted to represent their County - overall the Bluebell was actually voted as England's flower if I recall correctly. There is nothing more wonderful than a stroll through a wood carpeted with Bluebells in Spring. Indeed, it is said that the wife of Hamada, a well-known Japanese potter, used to come to England every year just for the sight.

If you do take such a stroll then take care to keep to the path - it is not the picking of the flowers that kills the plant it is the crushing of the leaves, which feed the bulbs. Bluebells are one indicator plant of ancient woodland and are protected under the law - Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and countryside Act 1981.

Bluebells often hybridise with the Hybrid Bluebell (a garden plant) or the very vigorous Spanish Bluebell but there is no mistaking the true Bluebell with its classic drooping long dark blue trumpets (as above). A hybrid is shown below and these sub-species can often have pink or white flowers.

The plant has no edible or medicinal uses - a previous Latin name for the Bluebell was Scilla non-scripta, Scilla being derived from the Greek, Skyllo, meaning to annoy, referring to the bulbs being poisonous. However, William Turner, in his herbal (published in 1568) reported that, "The boyes in Northumberland scrape the roots of the herbe and glew [glue] theyr [their] arrows and bokes [!] with that slime that they scrape off." Bluebell bulbs also provided starch for stiffening the ruffs favoured by men and women in Elizabethan times (Elizabeth I, 1558-1603).

The Victorians believed that the Bluebell blossomed on 23rd April, St George's Day, and that its flower was as blue as the ocean, over which Britain ruled.

In Scotland, they use the term Bluebell for an entirely different plant - the Harebell (Campanula Rotundifolia) - see below. In certain parts of Scotland it was called "The aul' [old] man's bell" and was, for reasons unknown to me, regarded with a sort of dread and left un-pulled.

Wood-sorrel.....facts and fables.....

Wood-sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella) is another beautiful Spring flower (April to May) often seen with Primroses and Wood Anemones in shady woodlands. A wonderful sight in Spring! There are a number of plants in the Wood-sorrel family but this is the only true native species. The white flowers have lovely lilac or mauve veining and they droop at night or when it rains to protect the pollen. The plant has a strange reproductive cycle in that it has two flowering periods. The white flowers appear in April lasting to May producing a capsule from which seeds are discharged. However, during the summer a second flowering occurs - a large number of buds close to the ground which seldom or never open. These self-pollinate producing many seeds.





Folklore

The veins on the flowers are said to be the marks of Christ's blood. Wood-sorrel appears in the forefront of crucifixion scenes painted by Fra Angelico and other 15th Century painters. In Dorset, Wood-sorrel is also known as the "Alleluiah" plant as it flowers between Easter and Whitsun when psalms ending in Alleluiah were sung in churches. Wood-sorrel is one of the plants claimed to be the Shamrock used by St Patrick to illustrate the doctrine of the trinity.

Medicinal uses

The leaves and flowers are the parts used and the active ingredients are muscilage, vitamin C and oxalic acid. Using various preparations it was used to hinder the putrefaction of blood, quench thirst, strengthen a weak stomach, prevent vomiting and to treat fevers. Crushed leaves were also applied to cuts and bruises. It was also used as a laxative.

Modern uses are for treating fevers, catarrh, urinary tract inflammation, skin infections and mouth ulcers.

Edible uses

As early as the 14th Century the leaves were used to add flavour to salads, green sauces and soups. They have a sharp acidic taste - Oxalis comes from the Greek, Oxys, meaning sharp. However, because of the high acid content the plant should be used sparingly.

Other names for Wood-sorrel were Cuckow Sorrell, Cuckowes Meate (because cuckoos fed on the plant or it flowered when cuckoos were singing), Wood Sower, Sower Trefoile, Stubwort and Sorrell du Bois (French).

Colt's-foot....facts and fables...

Colt's-foot (Tussilago Farfara) - a favourite of mine because it is one of the first to come out when the sun shines in late winter / early spring, just after the snowdrops. It provides a lovely sulphur yellow splash of colour when all else is still pretty drab. Colt's-foot grows pretty much anywhere - waste sites, dry banks, fields or other places with a little loose soil, but it particularly likes clay. The flower heads close up as evening approaches. It is a strange plant because the leaves, which are hoof-shaped giving the main common name, only come out once the flowers have finished - hence the folk-names "son-before-father" or "Son of the father".


Folklore

William Coles, in his book, " The Art of Simpling: An introduction to the gathering and knowledge of plants" (published in 1656) states that, "if the down [seed heads] flieth off colt's-foot, dandelion and thistles when there is no wind, it is a sign of rain." Gypsies are said to believe that wherever the brilliantly yellow Colts-foot grows, coals will be found below.

Medicinal uses

Colt'sfoot had (and still has) a number of medicinal uses. These were best described by John Gerard in his book, "The History of Plants" (1597) and Nicholas Culpepper in his book, "The Complete Herbal" (1649). The plant, in various types of preparation could be used to treat coughs - Tussilago comes from the Greek, Tussis, meaning "a cough". It could also treat hot swellings and inflammations, "St Anthony's fire (whatever that was!!) and wheals that arise through heat. It could also treat the "burning heat of piles or privy parts" according to Culpepper.

Today, Colt's-foot is still an important ingredient in many cough medicines and can be used to treat tracheitis, bronchitis and asthma. It is also said that the bruised leaves can be applied to slow-healing cuts and grazes.

Edible uses

Apparently, the young leaves, flower buds and young flower heads lend salads a distinctive flavour and can also be used for soups or like spinach (leaves).

Other things...

The underside of the leaves was once (and could still be I suppose) scrapped off and used as tinder. The leaves could also be dried and used as a substitute for tobacco (Pliny recommended Colt's-foot smoke as a cough chaser).

What an amazing number of uses for such a small plant! Watch this space for more fantastic facts and fables about our common wild flowers (until the rain stops and we get a day's worth of sun so I can go out with my camera again!!).