Why was it called chickweed?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
January 9, 2004
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In John Gerard's day, the chickweeds were known under the generic name, Alsine, a name he credits to the Greeks and remarked that "...in Latine it retaineth the same name....." Chickweeds are now classified in the genera Stellaria, Cerastium, Callitriche, and Paronychia; worldwide there are hundreds of species. The common chickweed (Stellaria media (L.) Villars) is native to Europe and was known to Gerard as the lesser chickweed.
Gerard noted that "Chickweeds...grow among bushes and briers, old walls, gutters of houses, and shadowie places....are greene in Winter, they floure and seed in the Spring." Chickweed was and is a 'fresh greens' resource for birds and other wild life when most food resources consist of seeds or dried plants, a fact not lost on people with pet birds.
Beside chickweed's medicinal uses for humans, Gerard commented "Little birds in cadges (especially Linnets) are refreshed with the lesser Chickweed when they loath their meat (lose their appetite); whereupon it was called of some Passerina." (The Herbal, J. Gerard, 1633 edition)
Chickweeds were not just for small pet birds. According to Mrs. M. Grieve in A Modern Herbal (1931), it was popular winter treat for chickens and rabbits. Although now considered a nuisance plant, chickweed helped maintain healthy birds, especially important to those who depended on poultry for their livelihood.
Oddly, as humans have been taught that all 'weeds' are bad and so work diligently to free the earth of their presence, it is the little birds, the linnets, that have suffered. The British Trust for Ornithology reports that in the past three decades, linnet (Carduelis species) populations have dropped by 54 percent. (Cited by: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, "Linnet")
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
Why was it called chickweed? What's in a Name? - January 9, 2004
What weed was a treatment for mange? Herbal Folklore - January 5, 2004
Could dill dull pain? Herbal Folklore - November 17, 2003
What common weed is called a poorman's weatherglass? What's in a Name? - October 26, 2001
What lawn weed was once a tonic? Herbal Folklore - January 28, 2002
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