YELLOW GOAT'S BEARD - EDIBLE ROOT WITH MEDICINAL PROPERTIES

YELLOW GOAT’S BEARD, TRAGOPOGON PRATENSIS

At first sight Yellow Goat’s Beard looks rather like a dandelion and it has a clock of seeds like dandelions do too, which gives rise to another country name for the plant, Shepherd’s Clock. It is also called Meadow salsify as it is closely related to the Purple Goat’s Beard which gives us the salsify root. It is a member of the daisy family of Asteraceae or Compositae plants and is indigenous to Europe, including Britain, as well as Iran and Siberia and is naturalized in the US. It can grow to heights of between one and two feet, and has golden yellow flowers which bloom in June and July. It is notable in that the flowers open at dawn and close around noon, unless it is cloudy. This has given rise to the names “(Jack) go-to-bed-at-noon” as described by the 16th century

English herbalist, John Gerard, and “Noon flower.”

  Abraham Cowley, the 17^th century English metaphysical poet (1618-1667) wrote these lines about the plant in his poem which mentions many of Britain’s wild flowers “Helleborus Niger, or, Christmas Flower”:-

   “The goat’s beard, which each morn abroad doth peep

     But shuts its flowers at noon and goes to sleep.”

   The juice of the plant has been used for stomach upsets, and is said to be beneficial to the liver and gallbladder. The roots can be eaten like parsnips although the roots of the salsify plant are better. The young leaves and shoots can be used as pot-herbs to flavour soups and stews, and the young stalks including the flower buds before they open may be cooked like asparagus, and are said to have a similar taste. The roots can be dug up in autumn and kept in sand, as you would keep chicory roots. The high inulin content of the roots means that these roots are good for diabetics, and they are used as detoxifiers in traditional medicine. However the younger the root, the better it tastes.

  The yellow petals can be steeped in boiling water and left for 20 minutes or so and then the liquid should be strained and left to cool. The water can be used to lighten freckles and as a cleanser.

   The Physicians of Myddfai found uses for this plant, and this one was for pneumonia

“Let (the patient) take, for three successive days, of the following herbs; hemlock, agrimony, herb Robert, and asarabacca, then let him undergo a three day's course of aperients. When the disease is thus removed from the bronchial tubes, an emetic should be given him (daily) to the end of nine days. Afterwards let a medicine be prepared, by digesting the following herbs in wheat ale or red wine: madder, sharp dock, anise, agrimony, daisy, round birthwort, meadow sweet, yellow goat's beard, heath, water avens, woodruff, crake berry, the corn cockle, caraway, and such other herbs as will seem good to the physician. Thus is the blessed confection prepared.”

 Clearly this would kill or cure given that they prescribed hemlock!

 This was a prescription of theirs for fevers: first of all they suggested taking

   “The mugwort, madder, meadow sweet, milfoil, hemp, red cabbage, and the tutsan, all these seven herbs enter into the composition of the medicine required.

Any of the following herbs may be added thereto, butcher's broom, agrimony, tutsan, dwarf elder, amphibious persicaria, centaury, round birth wort, field scabious, pepper mint, daisy, knap weed, roots of the red nettle, crake berry, St. John's wort, privet, wood betony, the roots of the yellow goat's beard, heath, water avens, woodruff, leaves of the earth nut, agrimony, wormwood, the bastard balm, small burdock, and the orpine.”

  Culpeper used this plant in medicine too and wrote of it:-

 “A large double handful of the entire plant, roots, flowers and all bruised and boiled and then strained with a little sweet oil, is an excellent clyster in most desperate cases of strangury or suppression of urine. A decoction of the roots is very good for the heartburn, loss of appetite, disorders of the breast and liver, expels sand and gravel, and even small stone. The roots dressed like parsnips with butter are good for cold, watery stomachs, boiled or cold, or eaten as a raw salad; they are grateful to the stomach strengthen the lean and consumptive, or the weak after long sickness. The distilled water gives relief to pleurisy, stitches or pains in the side.”

  However the plant has fallen out of use both for its edible and medicinal qualities.

RED DOCK, CULPEPER'S BLOODWORT; HISTORY OF USES OF RED DOCK

RED DOCK, BLOODWORT, RUMEX AQUATICA

Red dock is native to Europe although not to Italy and the Balkans, and to Northern Asia. As its botanical name suggests it likes living on the edges of swampy ground and can be found in damp ditches and along margins of fields. It can grow up to 6 feet tall when it is in flower during July and August. As the English name says, it has red flowers and these give way in September to red-cased seeds. It is related to Rumex acetosella or sorrel and more distantly to rhubarb as they are all members of the Polygonaceae family of plants. It is also closely related to yellow or crispy dock and to the common dock (Rumex obtusifolia) which is the antidote to nettle stings.

  The leaves may be cooked and eaten as this will remove most of the oxalic acid present in them; they can be used like spinach, if necessary. However it is not advisable to ingest this plant if you suffer from rheumatism, gout or arthritis. An infusion of the whole plant can be used externally however on sores and ulcers to cleanse them. If taken internally this infusion is said to detoxify the body. The roots can be boiled and used as a poultice on rheumatic joints to alleviate the pain, and the powdered root has been used as toothpaste.  The root has also been used in the treatment of mouth ulcers, as has the dock leaf R. obtusifolia.

  The root can be harvested in spring when it is said to be at its most potent in medical terms, and dried for later use. The tannin in the plant makes it a useful astringent and can be used for diarrhoea and stomach upset, while the anthraquinones in the plant make it a good laxative, which is milder than senna and, of course jamalgota. If you take an overdose of the plant you will suffer nausea, stomach pains and gastric problems and perhaps dermatitis if used externally.

  Culpeper recommended the red dock or bloodwort: -

“All Docks are under Jupiter, of which the Red Dock, which is commonly called Bloodwort; cleanseth the blood and strengthens the liver.”

 He emphasizes this by ending his description of the docks by saying: -

   “Bloodwort is exceeding strengthening to the liver, and procures good blood, being as wholesome a pot herb as any growing in a garden.”

   However all docks have gone out of culinary use; the information here is for curiosity's sake only.

RAMSON, WILD OR BEAR'S GARLIC, EUROPEAN NATIVE: HISTORY,USES AND HEALTH BENEFITS OF WILD GARLIC

WILD GARLIC, BEAR’S GARLIC, RAMSON,ALLIUM URSINUM

I grew up in a place where wild garlic proliferated, and hated the smell when the plant was in flower. I was amazed that such pretty flowers could smell so awful. I’m not sure that the acrid smell is like that of garlic, but it is strong and hangs heavily in the air around the growing plants.

  Apparently it is called bear’s garlic in Latin because the European brown bears were partial to the bulbs and would gorge on them when they awoke from their hibernation period. It is a native to Western and Central Europe and parts of Asia. In Germany there has been a movement to use edible wild plants in haute cuisine and chefs have been putting bear’s garlic in their dishes, which seems a bit of a waste, as, like fresh coriander leaves, the broad chopped leaves are best added to piping hot food and stirred into it just before serving. Cooking it like spinach or leeks rather diminishes the flavour. You can add the leaves to soups as you would sorrel, but again you lose most of the flavour, but do have a smelly kitchen.

  All parts of the plant are edible and our ancestors seemed to have utilized it as remains of pollen have been found in Neolithic settlements in Sweden and in Mesolithic ones in Denmark. It is a member of the onion family and closely related to chives.

  The plant leaves are high in vitamin C and also contain vitamins A and the minerals, manganese, copper, iron, magnesium and traces of selenium. The leaves also contain adenosine which is believed to play a key role in regulating high blood pressure and tachycardia.

   Throughout history the plant has been used as a spring tonic to cleanse the blood and boost the immune system, as it is believed to work to boost the functioning of the internal organs. It was named “1992 Medicinal Plant of the Year” by the Association for the Protection and Research on European Medicinal Plants, and there have been some clinical trials carried out on this plant along with true garlic Allium sativa. Bear’s garlic comes out top in terms of sulphur content although most of the relevant literature says that it has a weaker medicinal action than Allium sativa.

  If you go foraging for this plant simply follow your nose. There have been reports of people suffering the effects of poisoning from confusing the leaves of Bear’s garlic with those of lily-of-the-valley, or cuckoo pint and even dying after eating too many leaves of the autumn crocus, or meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale). The smell of garlic will come from this plant and doesn’t from the others, which don’t really bear it too much resemblance, so if you follow your nose on this you shouldn’t encounter a problem.

  If you use the bulb it is best harvested between the months of July and December or early January, although if you start to dig up bulbs you are depleting the wild stock of plants. It’s best to just stick to eating the leaves. The plant has antifungal and antiviral actions and has been used in the past as household disinfectant - the juice from the plant is good for this, although you still have to deal with the odour. The plant itself is useful in gardens as it repels insects and burrowing moles.

  The juice is said to be good for weight loss, and its mild action can be a counter irritant if applied to places where you have rheumatic pains. It increases the blood circulation locally and does ease pain in arthritic joints.

  The plant has been used for asthma and emphysema sufferers as well as in cases of bronchitis, and is said to be effective.

  The name ramson which is the plant’s English name gives rise to some confusion as there is a plant called rampion, which is a member of the Campanulaceae family, and not a relation to this one, and in the US in the Appalachians there is a plant locally called ramps which is a relative of this, but they are not the same plant. The US plant is a wild onion and its botanical name is Allium tricoccum.

RAMPION BELLFLOWER - ORNAMENTAL, HERB AND VEGETABLE WITH HEALTH BENEFITS

RAMPION, CAMPANULA RAPUNCULUS

Rampion is a flower, a herb and vegetable all rolled into one plant. Its roots look a little like an undernourished mooli or a pale parsnip, and is a root vegetable which can be boiled as you would boil a carrot. However, it is a member of the Campanulaceae family of plants which includes the Harebell (Campanula rotundiflora) to which rampion is a close relative. The stems of both plants contain a milky sap, which was once used as a facial treatment to whiten the skin and free it from blemishes. The distilled water from the plant was also once used for such purposes.

  The rampion was widely used in Britain in Shakespeare’s time as most of the plant is edible. The young shoots were blanched and used as a substitute for asparagus, while the leaves, which are rich in vitamin C, can be used in winter salads. They can also be substituted for spinach. It is a native of Europe, Asia and North Africa.

  These days, the plant is mostly seen as a garden ornamental, as the flowers which are generally lilac, are very attractive and like the harebell. However, the root is quite palatable and a little sweet like a parsnip and the leaves are edible too, so try some if you have it in your borders.

  The Brother’s Grimm featured the rampion in their tale of “Rapunzel” and that name seems to have its origins in the Latin name for the plant, rapunculus, which means little rapa or turnip. One version of Rapunzel tells us that a man and his wife had waited to have a baby for years, so when the woman eventually became pregnant, her husband would do anything for her. They lived near an enchantress who grew rampion in her garden, and the woman began to crave this plant. Her husband dutifully climbed over the wall and got her some one evening, and on subsequent ones, but the enchantress caught him as he was scaling back over the wall. She threatened him with enchantment or death for stealing her rampions and he promised, in return for his life being spared, that he would give her the baby his wife was carrying when it was born. The baby was Rapunzel who was duly handed over to the enchantress. You probably remember the rest of the story so I won’t bore you with it.

  There is an old superstition from Italy which says that children will quarrel if they are close to rampion or if they pull it up. In Calabria in southern Italy, there is an old legend that says that a young girl once uprooted rampion and found a staircase which led to an underground palace. No good came of it!

  According to the 16^th century herbalist, John Gerard, a decoction of the plant was used to ease sore throats and to soothe inflammations in the mouth. However there is no scientific evidence to support any medicinal uses of rampion.