originally posted: June 30, 2003 | by chelsie

The fragrant white waterlily (Nymphaea odorata Aiton) is native to temperate and tropical North America. The floating leaves and flowers arise from the tip of a thick rhizome (horizontal stem) submerged on a lake or stream bottom. The waxy flowers grace the early morning hours of the summer months. They open with dawn and are closed by mid-day. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: June 23, 2003 | by chelsie

When Ladislaus Cutak wrote his Cactus Guide in 1956, he mentioned that two small pharmaceutical firms made medicinals containing extracts from the queen of darkness, Selenicereus grandiflorus. "The juice extracted from the stems...is prepared as a heart tonic and generally used by homeopathists." The climbing cactus was a controversial medicine; it was confused with other cactus, proper preparations were ignored, and beneficial or detrimental dosages were close. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: June 16, 2003 | by chelsie

The young and tender growth of nettles (Urtica species) was a potherb, cooked and eaten. The practice dates back to the Romans having been recorded by Dioscorides in the first century CE. Through the Middle Ages with most of the population living at subsistence level, wild nettles growing along the roadsides would have been a fresh vegetable available to anyone. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: June 9, 2003 | by chelsie

In The Herbal, John Gerard wrote of "Euphorbium, The poysonous gum Thistle". The plant is now known as Euphorbia resinifera Berger, a succulent native to Morocco. Euphorbia are known for their white latex, Gerard described it as "the colour and substance of the Creame of Milke..." Depending upon the species, Euphorbia latex left on the skin can cause mild to severe dermatitis. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: June 2, 2003 | by chelsie

Sorrels are herbaceous plants; the common name applies to both Rumex and Oxalis, plants with a sour or acidic taste. Rumex are generally known as docks; Oxalis are commonly called lady's or wood sorrels. In 1597, John Gerard wrote of two wood sorrels which he knew as Oxys alba, the white (Oxalis acetosella Linnaeus), and Oxys lutea, the yellow or creeping (Oxalis corniculata Linnaeus). [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: May 26, 2003 | by chelsie

The khair-tree or catechu (Acacia catechu (Linnaeus f.) Willdenow) is a small tree growing 4.5 to 6 meters (15 to 20 feet). The tree was considered native to an area extending from Pakistan to Burma (Myanmar). It is now believed that khair-tree's natural range included east and central Africa and extended into Nepal and China. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: May 19, 2003 | by chelsie

Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus Linnaeus) are native to the Pyrenees, the Carpathian Mountains, and the Balkans. The plants were well established in English gardens by the 1500s. John Gerard (The Herbal, 1633 edition) knew the wide-leafed varieties as sweet Williams and the narrow-leafed as sweet Johns. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: May 12, 2003 | by chelsie

Butterworts are diminutive plants, small rosettes of leaves coated with a greasy secretion. The plants trap and digest small insects. There are an estimated seventy species native to the Northern Hemisphere. In 1597, John Gerard knew little of butterworts and apparently the only reference he could find was from Clusius. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: May 5, 2003 | by chelsie

"English Galingale hath leaves like unto the common Reed, but lesser and shorter. His stalke is three square, two cubits high....The root is blacke and very long, creeping hither and thither, occupying much ground by reason of his spreading: it is of a most sweet and pleasant smell when it is broken." so wrote John Gerard in 1597, but he offered this warning, "...these grow naturally in fenny grounds, yet will they prosper exceedingly in gardens, as experience hath taught us." [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: April 28, 2003 | by chelsie

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus Linnaeus) were curiosities in Europe in the sixteenth century. In 1597, John Gerard commented "The Indian Sun or golden floure of Peru is a plant of such stature and talnesse that in one Sommer being sowne of a seede in Aprill, it hath risen up to...fourteene foot in my garden, one floure was in weight three pound and two ounces, and crosse overthwart the floure by measure sixteene inches broad." [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: April 21, 2003 | by chelsie

Peonies (Paeonia officinalis Linnaeus and other species) are plants with bizarre legends. Although John Gerard in 1597 claimed most of the tales were nonsense, he took the time to repeat the stories and even accepted that some were true. Legends from the "Ancients" were accepted without doubt. 'True' peony legends Gerard credited to various Roman writers. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: April 14, 2003 | by chelsie

The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida Linnaeus) is native to eastern North America and, according to Mrs. Grieve (A Modern Herbal, 1931, reprinted 1996) was introduced into European gardening around 1760. Dogwoods were not new to European gardeners, forty-five species of Cornus are found scattered around the Northern Hemisphere. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: April 7, 2003 | by chelsie

In 1597, John Gerard wrote, "This rare and strange plant was sent to me from the French Kings Herbarist Robinus, dwelling in Paris at the signe of the blacke head, in the street called Du bout du Monde, in English, The end of the world. This herbe I planted in my garden, & in the beginning of May it came forth of the ground, with small, hard & woodie crooked stalks: whereupon grow rough & sharpe pointed leaves.... [Click here to read more...]