What common weed is called a poorman's weatherglass?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 26, 2001
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The poorman's weatherglass (Anagallis arvensis) [a nag' a lis ar ven' sis] is native to Europe and eastern Asia, a weed of waysides and fields. The seeds have traveled with people and the weatherglass is now found in temperate zones around the world. From Roman times to the late 1600s, it was believed that the red-flowered form was a male (Anagallis mas) and the blue-flowered a female (Anagallis foemina).
The weatherglass has been used medicinally since Grecian times for such diverse disorders as kidney stones, liver problems, dropsy (edema), and epilepsy. It was even said to fade freckles and remove splinters. The weatherglass did have some effect upon the kidneys, but not beneficial. Farm animals that have died from Anagallis poisoning show a severe degeneration of the kidneys and internal organs.
Dioscorides, a Greek physician in the first century, described this little weed in his De Materia Medica. His work is one of the first written texts to have used the name, anagallis, meaning delightful. The weatherglass was said to relieve depression following a long illness. But the name probably pre-dated Dioscorides for his work was a collection of lore from his travels. Linnaeus kept Dioscorides' written designation for the weatherglass and added arvensis meaning 'of cultivated fields'.
Sometime during the Middle Ages, the weatherglass picked up the reputation of guarding against the power of witches. Perhaps this common weed served as something to clutch when traveling dark roads or was given to victims of delusions. References to its use against witchcraft are mere notes with no details.
The poorman's weatherglass blooms in the late summer coinciding with the cutting and drying of hay. Hay must be dried before storage and rain spells disaster to a farmer with cut hay laying in a field. The field hands used the poorman's weatherglass to predict the weather for the next 24 hours. If the flowers are closed during the day, the next day is said to be rainy and foul, but if the flowers are open, the next day should be fair.
Lee Dittmann has posted photographs of the poorman's weatherglass taken at the Henry W. Coe State Park in California. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.coestatepark.com/anagallis_arvensis.htm
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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