BOTANY ON THE MALVERN HILLS
All information supplied by Keith Barnett & from his book"The Wild Flowers of the Malvern Hills"
Photographs by Keith Barnett
The wild flowers to look out for month by month
AUGUST
DWARF THISTLE Cirsium acaule (L.) Scop.
The perennial Dwarf Thistle, or Stemless Thistle, the bane of picnickers, is found in short, dry, usually calcareous grassland, as for example on parts of Castlemorton Common. It has a basal rosette of shiny prickly leaves from which springs a usually solitary pinkish-purple flower 2-5 cm, typically thistle-like, 2-5 cm across, but, unlike other species of thistle, with no stem or only a very short one. Although it mostly hugs the ground ~ in Worcestershire it is also known as Ground Thistle ~ it can sometimes reach as much as 30 cm high. In 'British Flowers in Colour' (undated) the plant was evocatively described by its unknown author as having' a splendid prickly green rosette, with a large fat pink star sitting stalkless in the centre, like a semi-precious stone in a n old-fashioned setting'.
SELF-HEAL Prunella vulgaris L.
Self-heal is an old wound-herb that under the Doctrine of Signatures suggested its efficacy as a healer of cuts, because each individual flower looks in profile like a small billhook. Other country names include Hook-heal, Sickle-wort and Hercules' Woundwort. Although apparently unknown medicinally to either the ancient Greeks or the Romans, it was widely used in Europe in the Middle Ages. It is a short, creeping perennial of grassy, preferably fairly damp, places including lawns where to survive it is forced by the mower's blade to grow very closely to the ground. There are dense cylindrical heads of dark purple (rarely lilac, white or pale blue) flowers on a square reddish stem. The generic name Prunella probably comes from German braune, meaning quinsy (an inflammation of the mouth, nose and tongue) which was common at one time among soldiers cooped together in garrisons, and which self-heal was once thought to cure. Braune then became corrupted, first to bruyne, the 'browns', so-called from the brown coating of the tongue associated with quinsy: then to brunella and then to prunella.
YARROW Achillea millefolium L.
Yarrow is a common perennial of meadows, road-verges, lawns and grassland of all kinds. Its numerous creamy-white (sometimes pale or dark pink) flowers, smelling vaguely of musk, are in flattish heads 3-6 mm across. The leaves are long, pungent and feathery. It was an old vulnerary herb, formerly also known as Soldier's Wound-wort, Carpenter's Herb and Knight's Milfoil, and was used specifically in the treatment of wounds made by iron. But physicians also treated patients suffering from headaches with Yarrow, or Nose-bleed as it was also known: taken in large doses it relieved pressure by causing the nose to bleed. In Herefordshire, it was believed that the stem of Yarrow picked in a churchyard by a girl would, when cut across, reveal the initials of her future husband, and the inclusion of Yarrow flowers in the wedding bouquet would ensure at least seven years of marital bliss. But it was also called Devil's Plaything and Devil-nettles, and placing the leaves over the eyes was reputed to instil in anyone, not just unmarried ladies, the gift of 'second sight', that is, the ability to foresee the future..
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