Rowan

Mountain Ash, Rowan
ROSACEAE Sorbus aucuparia

Comment
How often does nature not compensate for its bounty by imposing other strictures. The lovely Rowan is no exception to this phenomenon – its small white flowers have a most off-putting smell when approached closely. However, this does not detract from the great attraction of its fruit to bird life, who compensate for the feed by fertilizing and spreading the seeds in their droppings.

Description
A small deciduous tree or shrub with a slender crown, shiny and smooth grey bark and sleek grey/brown twiglets. The alternate odd-pinnate leaves are dark green above and paler below, having 9—19 sessile, lanceolate and sharply serrated leaflets.

The edible fruits – rowan-berries – are small scarlet globular pomes. Their taste tends to the sour and astringent.

History
Rowan comes from the Old Norse name ‘raun’. Although not a true ash, its leaves are similar. The specific name, aucuparia (bird-catching) — refers to the berries being a favourite food of birds and were thus used by trappers as bait for their birding nets.

Rowan bark was used for dyeing and tanning and the flexible sturdy wood was prized for tool handles.

Usage

• The dried fruits or the pressed juice of fresh fruits is used for constipation and kidney disorders. Strictly avoid large doses.
• Ripe fruits are used medicinally. Ingredients include tannins, organic acids, sugars, pectin and vitamin C. These ingredients impart mild purgative, diuretic and general tonic properties.
• Fruits are a raw material for the manufacture of sorbose, a sweetening agent for diabetics.
• The fruits have been used as a laxative and to make drinks to prevent scurvy. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has also been extracted commercially from them.
• The berries, particularly those of cultivated sweet-fruited varieties, can be used to make syrups, compotes, conserves and wines.
• Berries are also used in certain liqueur manufacturing processes.

Growth Characteristics
Rowan is native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, where it grows in woods, scrub, on mountain rocks and by mountain streams, but is rare in lowland areas. The greatest species diversity, with many microspecies occuring, is in mountainous regions of western China and the Himalayas.

Flowering time: May to June – N. hemisphere.

Dog Rose

Dog Rose
ROSACEAE Rosa canina

Comment
A deciduous shrub with arched, downward-curving branches, which are armed with stout hooked prickles. The fruit consists of  numerous hairy achenes enclosed in a fleshy, amphora-shaped, bright orange/red casing a.k.a. the well known rosehip.

It is an indication of how blase we can be when this lovely plant is so familiar that many people don’t stop to enjoy these roses. But that is their loss.

Appearance
The plant can vary considerably in shape and form. Leaves are odd-pinnate with five to seven ovate to elliptic, serrated leaves. Petioles and midribs typically bear prickles while the sweet-scented flowers have large canopied pink or white petals.

History
Evidence of Dog Rose hips have been recorded in and around ancient settlements suggesting that the shrub has a long association with mankind.

The provenance of the common name – Dog Rose – is not clear. Popular belief holds that the name is a reference to the medieval Latin rosa canina, stemming from the ancient Latin (originally Greek) word cynorrhodon. The plants root was believed to be used as a herbal remedy to cure the effects of being bitten by a mad – or rabid – dog. Another theory is that the ancient Greeks may have just been denigrating the worth of Dog Rose as a garden plant by using the belittleing term ‘dog’.

Rose Hips

Usage
The hips are the medicinally sought-after elements. Their makeup includes vitamin B complex, vitamin C, carotenes, pectin, tannins, sugars as well as malic and citric acids. The fruits contain fatty oil.

The best-known and widely used herbal remedy deriving from the plant is rosehip tea. which has mild diuretic, astringent, tonic and mildly laxative actions. Fresh hips are an outstanding source of vitamin C. Whether fresh or dried, they are beneficial for convalescents, against fatigue and colds. Rose hip tea is most effective when made by macerating the crushed hips (without the hard achenes) and not by a long boiling process.A decoction from the hips can be used as a gargle for bleeding gums and will alleviate toothache.

Fresh hips are also used for syrups, jams and tonic wine.

Growth Characteristics
Dog Rose grows throughout Europe in scrub hedges and woods. It is the most common British wild rose, though less prolific in throughout Scotland.

Flowering time: June to July – N. hemisphere

Aspen

Aspen
SALICACEAE Populus tremula

Appearance
The alternating, almost circular leaves possess bluntly toothed or wavy borders and emphatically sideways-flattened petioles, which tremble in the least breeze: they adorn a small deciduous tree with flat bark – at the onset yellowish but then developing darkish grey highlights.

The female blooms have purple stigmas. The flowers unfold before the leaves emerge. The fruit is a capsule which releases seeds with a white pappus.

The slightly sticky buds are sturdily oval. Aspen is dioecious with separate male and female catkins, that have purple hairy bracts.

History
Aspen and the archaic version, Asp, are taken from the Anglo-Saxon name aespetoithe tree. The word ‘asp’ was sometimes utilized to indicate tremulous, after the shaking leaves. The particular epithet also identifies this distinctive attribute of the tree.

Usage
Other than on the Continent, Aspen is not widely used in herbal medicine. A better-known resinous product from poplar buds is balm of Gilead, which is produced by the tree referred to as Balm of Gilead (P. gileadensis or P. candicans), from Balsam Poplar (P. balsamifera) or American Aspen (P. tremuloides).

Balm of Gilead is likewise gathered from a North American fir (Abies balsamea). The true balm of Gilead is, however, the resin of tropical bushes or small trees of the genus Commiphora.

Externally compresses, bathtub formulations and treatment-creams are used for haemorrhoids and management of burns. Preparations from fresh leaves are employed in homeopathy.

The leaf buds, sometimes the young bark and the leaves of Aspen, are all employed medicinally. Like the buds of Black Poplar (P.nigra), Aspen buds include an essential oil, bitter compounds, salicin and populin.

Such ingredients provide Aspen powerful diuretic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties and the buds are used in an infusion for gout and rheumatism as well as for problems of the urinary tract and enlarged prostate gland.

Growth Characteristics
Aspen grows all over Europe including the British Isles, in open woods, notably on poorer soils. It is also regularly placed in home gardens and avenues.

Flowering time: February to March. (Northern Hemisphere)

Yarrow Varieties

As promised, part 2 of the yarrow article. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for all the good feedback on part 1.

Yarrow
Achillea millefolium

Other names
Millefolium, milfoil, thousand-leaf, gordoloba, thousand- leaf clover, green arrow, soldiers’ woundwort, nosebleed, dog daisy, bloodwort, sanguinary, carpenter grass, old-mans pepper, cammock and achillia.

Appearance
A perennial natural herbal remedy with a creeping rhizome and vertical, furrowed and downy stems. The dark-green basal and stem foliage are lanceolate and nicely dispersed (2-3 times pinnate). The compact flowerheads are clustered in substantial, flat corymbs. The flowers are milky white or sometimes pinkish; the disc-florets whitish. The fruit, an achene, is compressed and to some degree winged. All sections of the herb have a typical robust aroma.

The non-woody portions of the flowering stems, in some cases solely the flowers, unencumbered with stalks, are utilized medicinally.

History
Yarrow was one amongst the herbs reserved for the devil – or the Evil One – in previous days, being sometimes known as Devil’s Nettle, Devil’s Plaything, Bad Man’s Plaything, and was utilised in spells for divination.

Yarrow is a perennial herb, commonplace almost everywhere in Europe, Asia, North America and almost every other nations all over the world in hedgerows and fields as well as on dried banks and roadsides. The plant’s therapeutic characteristics were known to the classical Greeks who called Yarrow Achillea after Achilles, the exalted warrior: known to have had his wounds treated with yarrow.

The exact title mittefolium (‘thousand leaf’) pertains to the plant’s many feathery leaves. The familiar name Yarrow is derived from the Anglo-Saxon expression gearwe – the original significance of which is lost in the mists of time

Usage
An aromatic, bitter, astringent, choleretic and anti-bacterial natural herbal remedy; it’s antispasmodic behaviors have been used to help reduce swelling, contribute to sweating and alleviate indigestion. It works like a diuretic, lessening hypertension, comforting spasms and arresting hemorrhage.
The complete plant, in addition to the essential oil extract, can be used. The major part is an essential oil with azulenes. that go blue after distillation. The plant also includes the alkaloids achilleine and stychydrine, tannins and bitter substances.

These substances give Yarrow diaphoretic, germ killing, stomachic, astringent and antispasmodic qualities that have a range of functions both internally and externally. Herbal and natural specialists apply an infusion for digestive upsets, diarrhoea, flatulence, menstrual disorders, colds and fevers.
Prudence is recommended as substantial or continuous doses used over a long period could cause the skin to be more vulnerable to rays from the sun. It is truly one of the primary natural herbal remedies.

There are so many facets to yarrow, that this has become my longest post ever. I am splitting this in half and will post more usage and growth sections tomorrow. Until then.

Rhubarb Plant

POLYGON ACEAE Rheum palmatum (as well as types)
Curative Rhubarb, Chinese Rhubarb

Appearance
A perennial herb with a heavy rhizome together with a basal rosette of coarsely toothed palmately split foliage. The rather tall, robust, hollow, lightly furrowed stalk is branched towards the top part and possesses terminal panicles of reddish to greenish-white blossoms. The whole plant is reddish. The fruit is a triangular achene.

Look Out For The Poison In Rhubarb!
Although arguably one of the most ancient of herbal remedies, oxalates are present in all parts of rhubarb plants, most especially in the green leaves. There is some evidence that anthraquinone glycosides are likewise present and might be to some extent responsible. It is far from clear with regards to the exact source of poisoning from rhubarb, potentially a consequence of both substances. The stalks have low amounts of oxalates, so this does not lead to problems. The leaves of all rhubarbs are dangerous.

History
Medicinal Rhubarb is indigenous to northeast Asia where it still grows wild. In China it has been utilized as a source for various herbal remedies and cures for over 4,000 years and is now grown there as well as in other eastern countries for pharmaceutical uses.

The well known Garden Rhubarb cultivated for its edible stalks (R. rhaponticum) is not typically employed as a herbal remedy even though its stems are laxative. The name Rhubarb is originally from the classical Greek words rha (= an old name for the River Volga) and barbaros (= foreign).

True rhubarb, that provides effective purgative constituents., is the Chinese variety (Rheum palmatum?), which is only to be found growing in the mountainous areas in Kansu province.

Marco Polo, who knew all about the Chinese rhubarb, spoke about it at length in accounts of his excursions in China. So much interest in Marco Polo’s travels comes from the fact that Venice was a significant trading center and as a result of eastern Arabic influence, Chinese rhubarb was already commonly used in European pharmacy products.

Usage
Herbal Remedies

• The rhizomes of 5- to 7-year-old plants are utilized medicinally. The components feature two types of glycosides: tannin glycosides with free gallic acid, cinnamic acid and glucose; and anthraquinone glycosides based upon the aglycones chrysophanol, emodin, aloe-emodin and rhein (up to 10 per cent). When dried they possess a bitter taste.
• The rhizomes also contain starch and calcium oxalate. In small doses Rhubarb is astringent and is used to treat diarrhea and to quicken the appetite.
• More robust doses act as a laxative after 8 to 10 hours and are used to take care of persistent constipation.
• Rhubarb is included in certain patented formulations – it is an element of many herbal tea mixes and digestive powders.
• Rhubarb herbal remedies must not be taken by people that have urinary issues, uroliths, kidney stones, arthritis and rheumatism or by young children or nursing moms.
• Lately there have been suggestions that rhubarb root (Rheum officinale) could very well be helpful in therapy for Hepatitis B.

Culinary uses of Rhubarb

• Rhubarb – also “pie plant” – is valued for use in pies, tarts, and sauces. Only the petioles are eaten, whereas herbal solutions use the leaves and roots. The elevated levels of oxalic acid and other compounds within the leaves are harmful to people. The petioles incorporate much smaller amounts of oxalic acid and, primarily, malic acid.
• Take the fresh crisp stalks, and peel off any stringy covering before use. Stand the stalks in cold water for an hour or two to renew them before food prep. Before use, clear away any leaves and trim the tips. Rhubarb requires sweetening to diminish the extreme tartness.
• It would be served as a sauce over ice cream, mixed with fresh strawberries, or made into pies, tarts, puddings, breads, jam, jellies, and rejuvenating concoctions.

Rhubarb – One Of The Oldest Herbal Remedies

Growth Characteristics
Flowers in July (N.Hemispere) or January (S. Hemisphere)

R. palmatum does not grow very well in Europe and yet another species, R. officinale, typically referred to as Turkey Rhubarb, is grown on a small scale for medicinal use.

Gathering should be deferred until the second year following planting to allow for the build up of root reserve. At some stage in the second year, a light harvest may be taken and normal harvests can begin in the third year.
Rhubarb is a cool season, perennial plant that is extremely winter resilient and resistant against drought.

Rhubarb tolerates the majority of soils but grows up best on fertile, well-drained soils classified as rich in organic material. A thoroughly clean gardening location is necessary for the cultivation of rhubarb seeing that no herbicides are registered to be used on rhubarb. Small areas of perennial weeds can easily build-up to harmful quantities. To reduce this, all of the perennial weeds need to be killed off the year before planting. The fields would be cultivated in the springtime and after cutting, and hand hoeing may also be appropriate. Rhubarb is relatively free of bug and disease conditions.

Fertilization
Rhubarb is pretty tolerant of soil acidity but performs best in mildly to moderately acid soil. The plants are able to tolerate soil pH as low as 5.0; even so, highest yields are attained at a pH of 6.0 to 6.8. Good volumes of fertilizer are needed.
Rhubarb reacts nicely to fertilizers. The standard of the harvest and the quality of the herbal remedies produced from it is dependent to a large degree on the care and fertilization received.

Manure is an effective method of adding organic matter and helps to conserve humidity, preserves the soil structure, and helps make nutrients easily accessible. Fresh manure must not be utilized because it would probably burn the sensitive young rhubarb plants.

Marshmallow Herb

Marshmallow – also althaea root, mallow root, mortification root, Schloss tea, sweet weed, Hock herb.
MALVACEAE Althaea officinalis

Description
A perennial botanical herb with a yellow, branched root, elevated, vertical, leafy stems and substantial alternating, lobed and irregularly toothed foliage.

The stems and foliage are velvety. The milky white or pinkish blooms of these herb garden plants, which are inviting to bees, are lined up in uneven racemes in the leaf axils. The disc-shaped schizocarpic fruit (a capsule) splits into one-seeded nutlets (mericarps). The fruits are usually referred to as ‘cheeses’ because of their rounded structure.

History
Homer’s Iliad -  from 2,800 years ago,  contains references to marshmallow root as a healing herb.

The familiar soft candy, marshmallow, was initially flavoured with Marshmallow root.

The familiar term ‘mallow’ is a corruption of the Latin term malva for this and similar plants in the Malvaceae family (see also PL 139). Both malva and Malvaceae almost certainly originate in the Greek word malakos (= soft), a reference to the softening and healing attributes of these herbs.

Among its various constituents are sugar, starch, an amino acid (asparagine) and pectin.

Usage
Marshmallow is a popular herbal remedy for diverse conditions and is cultivated commercially in certain countries.

The whole plant incorporates a healing action. But it has got to be without rust.

Marshmallow is regarded as the most vital mucilaginous medicinal herbs mainly because it contains a high proportion of mucilage (flowers around 20 per cent, roots near 30 per cent) and it is incorporated into branded medication and herbal preparations as an ointment, demulcent, antitussive and expectorant.

Marshmallow is employed internally for bronchitis and bronchial asthma and for indigestion and gastrointestinal difficulties.

It makes calming gargles and compresses and poultices for external application. It offers a number of cosmetic purposes too. The roots may be boiled and used like a vegetable.

Growth Characteristics
Marshmallow boasts a wide-ranging distribution from western Europe to Siberia. In the British Isles, where it is native, it is commonplace in salt marshes and on banks nearby the seashore. It is now naturalized to the eastern United States and used for ornamental purposes -  foliage and purple flowers.

Flowering period – Northern hemisphere: August to September.

Alder - Alnus glutinosa

BETULACEAE Alnus glutinosa
Appearance
There are 3 well-known alder plants with a few differing characteristics:

Alder (Alnus glutinosa) A deciduous shrub or medium-sized tree with darkish-brown, fissured bark and glabrous twigs with yellowish lenticels (wart-like components) on the bark. Alder is monoecious; the flowers are borne on the old wood and emerge before the leaves, organized in catkins. The leaves are broadly spherical or sometimes notched at the tip, often doubly serrate, bright-green on both sides and very sticky (viscid) in the springtime. The long, hanging male catkins possess purplish scales and yellow-colored blossoms; the shorter female catkins- are nearly globular, reddish-purple in early spring but they transform into brownish and woody after the seeds are released developing cones or ‘berries’. The fruit is a winged achene.

Grey Alder [A. incana) is similar to Alder however it has sleek greyish bark, its leaves are pointed and are greyish green above and pale below.

Green Alder (A. viridis) is more of a shrub than a tree. Its leaves have a sharp point, cordate base and are green on either side. It grows in mountainous areas in Europe.

History
Alder is indigenous to Europe, Asia and Africa, it is familiar all across the British Isles. The wood is light and easily worked once seasoned. The common designation, Alder, apparently originates from the Anglo-Saxon word alor or aler, and this may derive from an old time German term elo or elawer (reddish yellow), considered a reference to the colour of the fresh-cut timber.

Usage
All species of alder possess similar medicinal properties and are established rustic medications, employing the sticky young leaves and the bark, from felled timber. The constituents include tannins and anthraquinones which provide Alder an astringent effect and a bitter taste.

1. The fresh crushed leaves soothe chapped skin.
2. A decoction of Alder is utilized externally in the form of a gargle for tonsillitis and as a mouth wash.
3. Used to deal with enteritis, severe diarrhoea, fever, colds and rheumatic soreness.

Growth Characteristics
Alder will grow in wet woods and by wetlands and streams.

Alder can flourish in places where the anaerobic or near-anaerobic soil factors – generally due to waterlogging – could swiftly damage and destroy most other tree varieties. It manages this by a symbiotic relationship with a nitrogen-fixing bacterium which occupies root nodules. The bacteria provide the nitrates the tree needs while the tree appears to supply physical and chemical protection to the bacteria.

Flowering period: March to April. (Northern hemisphere)

Appearance
The violet-red flowers are borne in a loose, terminal spike. The leaves are lanceolate, broadest at the center and unspotted; the ones at the bottom level are structured in a rosette, those at the summit are sheathed and upright. A perennial herb with spherical tubers and an erect leafy stem. The side petals are curved upward to form a helmet-shaped structure with conspicuous green veins; the lower lip is three-lobed. The fruit is a capsule with numerous very small seeds.

History
They are collected for therapeutic needs only where they still grow abundantly but they have been replaced by other, less-expensive herbal remedies.

Green-winged Orchid is reasonably plentiful in the south of Britain but is rarer in other places. Another indigenous British orchid, Broad-leaved Marsh Orchid [Dactylorhiza majalis), has a far more scattered and local distribution. It can be distinguished from Green-winged Orchid by its split tubers, usually spotted leaves, pinkish-mauve flowers and the side petals which are spreading and not formed into a helmet.

These species along with other orchids are declining in quantities in the wild and many are now protected.

At one time orchids were utilized as aphrodisiacs and the generic name, Orchis, from a Greek word for testicle, pertains to the appearance of the tubers. Green-winged Orchid’s specific name, morio, however, means ‘fool’! A nutritious drink known as salep is still produced from the dried tubers of some orchids, chiefly species of Orchis.

Usage
The tubers are the medicinal elements. Their constituents include about 50 per cent of mucilage that changes by hydrolysis to mannose and glucose, as well as 30 per cent of starch and proteins.

These elements give Green-winged Orchid emollient, stomachic and antidiarrhoeal characteristics and it was previously used for intestinal and abdominal disorders. For more information, check out Online Biology Degree to find classes that can teach you more about the usage of this herbal viagra.

Growth characteristics
Green-winged Orchid grows patchily throughout Europe in dry meadows and pastures, especially on lime-rich earth.

Flowering period: May to June.(Northern hemisphere)

ERICACEAE Vaccinium myrtillus

Appearance
The alternating, briefly stalked leaves are oval, finely serrate and vivid green; they are easily distinguished from those of Cowberry. The pitcher-shaped pinkish or greenish-pink flowers with rather short turned-back lobes grow singly or in pairs in the upper leaf axils. A low deciduous subshrub with a creeping rhizome and numerous erect, leafy, branched, green and angled stems..The fruit is a globose, edible, blackish berry with a blue-grey bloom.

History
Vaccinium is the ancient designation for this and related plants. The specific epithet refers to the leaves, which are similar to those of Myrtle (Myrtus communis). The derivation of the ‘bil’ and ‘whortle’ in the traditional names is unknown; ‘blae’ means blue-black.

Often associated with improvement of night sight, bilberries are cited in a popular story of World War II RAF pilots eating bilberry jam to sharpen vision for night missions. However, a contemporary study by the U.S. Navy found no such benefit and origins of the RAF story cannot be established.

Although the effect of bilberry on night vision is unproven, laboratory research in rats have provided preliminary evidence that bilberry consumption may inhibit or reverse eye conditions such as macular degeneration.

Usage

• The sweet fruits, which are rich in vitamins, have long been a popular food. They have also been a traditional treatment for diarrhoea.
• The leaves of non-flowering twigs and the fruits are used medicinally. The constituents of the leaves include tannins, organic acids, a glycoside (arbutin) and plant insulins. These substances give the leaves astringent, antiseptic, diuretic and weak hypoglycaemic properties; they are used in an infusion for gastritis, enteritis, and diarrhoea.
• Dried berries are chewed to control diarrhoea.
• They are also incorporated in natural herbal tea mixtures with an antisclerotic action. It is advisable not to take this infusion in strong doses or over a long period of time.
• The ripe berries are used fresh or dried. They comprise of sugars, pectin, organic acids, tannins, mineral salts, vitamins B and C and organic pigments (anthocyanins).
• Wine and an alcoholic extract from the berries also provide a costive action.
• The pressed liquid from the berries and conserves are good for mouth and throat infections.
• The wholesome berries can be enjoyed raw or stewed and made into pies.

Growth Characteristics
Albeit bilberries are indigenous to Europe and grow on humus-rich acidic damp soils in heaths, woods and on moors, they are present in very acidic, nutrient-poor soils throughout the temperate and subarctic regions of the globe. One attribute of bilberries is that they produce single or paired berries on the bush rather than clusters, as the blueberry does.

Flowering time April to June (Northern hemisphere)

LILIACEAE Allium sativum

Appearance
Garlic is a perennial herb with a bulb which is split into segments (Known as cloves), basal linear leaves and an erect stalk terminated by an umbel with numerous small bulbils between the purplish-white flowers. The flower cluster is encircled by a sheath (spathe) of papery bracts. The fruit is a capsule with black seeds; the seeds do not ripen in cultivated plants.

History
Surrounded by myth and legend, garlic is truly one of the oldest herbs, believed to have originated in Central Asia. It was used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to give vitality and stamina and it is still one of the world’s most useful culinary and medicinal plants.
Garlic has long been planted as a crucial vegetable, seasoning and medicinal herb.

Garlic’s name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term garleac, from gar (= a spear) and leac (= a leek), supposedly meaning ‘a leek with cloves like spearheads’.

Garlic is a wonderful plant that played as great an role in the ancient spice trade as it does right now. Whether you like it or otherwise, there’s no escaping this useful herb.

Usage
ALWAYS CONSULT A MEDICAL EXPERT BEFORE BEGINNING A HOME TREATMENT; THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS IN NO WAY INTENDED TO REPLACE YOUR DOCTOR’S PROFESSIONAL ADVICE.

• Garlic is a powerful medicinal herb with extraordinary antibiotic qualities. The bulb is used medicinally, either fresh, dried or otherwise prepared. It includes essential oils and iodine.
• It is a blood tonic and has strong antiviral properties.
• If taken routinely it will remove harmful build up within the blood, kidneys and liver.
• Under medical supervision it can be used to bring down high cholesterol and ease high blood pressure.
• It is an energizing cleanser, tonic and energizer – its hypotensive and cardiovascular activitv has been well investigated as has its antiseptic and expectorant effect on the entire respiratory system.
• It is used to deal with intestinal illness, hypertension and arteriosclerosis, and it helps digestion by stimulating bile secretions.
• Externally Garlic can be applied to insect bites, boils and unbroken chilblains, but it may cause an allergic rash if used for too long.
• Garlic has certainly come of age worldwide; once regarded as a smelly European ingredient it is now in demand in many countries and for a wide variety of foods. The phenomenal popularity in the last decades of Italian cuisine is possibly the single most significant reason for the renewed superstar status of garlic
• Chewing a leaf of basil, mint, parsley or thyme helps to cleanse the breath after eating garlic.

Propagation and harvesting
Breeding and selection has yielded countless types, which are propagated by planting the cloves in rows in prepared ground.

Autumn is the right time to plant garlic. Plant individual cloves 5-7cm apart in shallow trenches in well dug, richly composted soil and full sun.

When planting garlic make certain that the pointed end faces up.

Water your plants two or three times a week in hot weather conditions.

Your garlic is ready to harvest once the flat long leaves start to turn pale and papery. Tie the bulbs in bunches and suspend them in an airy structure to dry and develop the rich, pungent flavour that garlic is popular for.

Flowering time: July to September.(Northern Hemisphere)

Companion planting

• Parsley performs very well indeed when raised close to garlic and it is employed to clear the breath of garlic’s strong sulphur compounds.
• Additional excellent companion plants are beetroot, orange and lemon trees, lettuce, roses and even tomatoes.
• Grown around citrus fruit trees garlic forms an excellent barrier against caterpillars, borers and cutworms and aids in inhibiting leaf curl.
• It improves the taste of cherry tomatoes grown nearby and keep beetles and grasshoppers to a minimum.
• Do not plant garlic in near proximity to cabbages, beans, peas, strawberries or broccoli because they will not do well next to garlic.

verbena officilanis

Appearance
Vervain is a perennial herb sporting a rectangular, stiff and erect stem, which is typically randomly branched. It is sparsely leafy in the top section, frequently with with semi-circular teeth;the diametrically opposed dull-green leaves are pinnately divided into oblong lobes, often with rounded teeth, the end lobe having a greater size than the others. The topmost leaves are smaller and sparsely divided. All parts of the plant are coarsely hairy. The small, double-lipped pale lilac flowers are displayed in elongated terminal spikes. Plants yield a foursome of nutlike burgundy coloured fruit.

History
The name, Vervain, comes from verbena, the classic Roman term for altar plants used in religious ceremonies. Vervain is native to much of Europe in sheltered spots spread around the countryside. Uncommon in Britain, where it is native, but principally in England and Wales. Vervain has a history interwoven with legends of sorcery, magic and its properties as a medicinal herb. Lovers used it in love potionsand the triumphant Roman soldiers carried it for protection.

Usage

• Vervain was once used to ward off plague.
• To this day it is a popular herbal remedy for nervous complaints.
• When worn round the head, it was believed to repel headaches and prevent poisonous bites from snakes, spiders and scorpions.
• The flowering stems are used medicinally. Their constituents include the glycosides verbenalin and verbenin, tannins, an essential oil, mucilage, saponins and mineral compounds. These substances give Vervain astringent, diuretic, stomachic, tonic, diaphoretic, antispas-modic, vulnerary, mild sedative and hypnotic properties.
• It is used internally in an infusion for various disorders associated with the stomach, liver and kidneys. It is great for stimulating the metabolism, treating general nervous exhaustion, insomnia and migraine.
• Externally Vervain is used in gargles and in compresses and bath preparations for skin disorders. An extract from the fresh plant is used in homeopathy.

COMPOSITAE/ASTERACEAE Helianthus annuus

Appearance
The large, terminal showy flower heads are made up of yellow ray-florets, which are sterile, and purplish-brown, tubular disc-florets. The fruit is a slightly flattened achene, frequently streaked with white and black.

Sunflower is a large annual herb with an upright, occasionally branched hairy stem. The many leaves are sizeable and chordate, opposite below and alternate and long-stalked above.

History
Sunflowers were initially grown by American Indians some time before 1000 BC. It was introduced to Europe in the 16th century yet somehow failed to emerge as a major food plant until it reached Russia, where large-scale cultivation started. Today it is grown as a field crop commercially in a great many areas of the world for oil, fodder and decoration.

There are many cultivated varieties, some with flower heads up to 40 cm wide. The popular name, Sunflower, and the generic name, Helianthus (from the Greek words helios ~ sun and anthos ~ flower), were purportedly given to the plant since it tracks the sun by day, continually turning in the direction of its direct rays.

Equally as possible an explanation is that the plant was so-named simply because the flower heads with disc and ray suggest the sun’s overall look.

The leaves and flowers were once used to attend to malaria.

Usage

• In homeopathy a tincture from the seeds is employed internally to relieve constipation and externally on cuts and bruises.
• The expressed fatty oil from the seeds contains glycerides of unsaturated lino-lenic and oleic acids (around 45 per cent) and saturated palmitic and arachic acids (about 4 per cent).
• It can be used in salves, plasters and liniments for rheumatic discomfort.
• It is also frequently used in food items as a salad and margarine oil, in soaps and as a lubricant.
• The seeds can also be roasted and eaten, employed as a coffee replacement and ground up into flour.
• The dried flower heads are also made use of medicinally in some countries. They have diuretic, carminative, anti-inflammatory and antidiarrhoeal attributes.

Growth Characteristics
Sunflower is a native of western North America. Flowers June to September

Foxglove Digitalis purpurea

Some herbal remedies ought not to be taken if there is a pre-existing kidney, liver or heart condition, or if an individual is diabetic. For example, Juniper should not be taken by those with inflamed kidneys and Rhubarb not by individuals with urinary conditions and kidney stones and uroliths.

Professional guidance should always be sought if there is any question about the toxicity of a plant or about the interactions of herbal remedies with other medicines that are currently being taken. Guidance should be sought if there is any doubt about the safety of a herbal treatment for a child. It is highly recommended that you seek the opinion of a medical assistant regarding the kind of medicinal herbs that can be safely ingested.

Compared to synthetic drugs very few herbal remedies have been clinically screened in a scientific way for both their beneficial and potentially harmful properties. It is hence inadvisable for expecting mothers to take any herbal reme’dy aside from very mild herbal teas (for example, Chamomile) and those prescribed by a qualified medical or herbal practitioner.

The collection and processing of medicinal plants are closely supervised and the resulting medications are prescribed meticulously by qualified professional medical personnel.

Some highly toxic plants provide such important medicines (alkaloids and glycosides primarily) that they are cultivated commercially for the pharmaceutical industry (such as, Ergot Fungus, Deadly Nightshade, Foxgloves and Opium Poppy). A selection of extremely toxic medicinal plants is listed below; keep in mind we have used what we consider the best known name, but for regional and language differences have also incorporated the scientific (Latin) name.

Bittersweet solanum-dulcamara

These herbs should NEVER be collected and prepared for use in the home:

• Biting Stonecrop Sedum acre
• Bittersweet Solanum dulcamara
• Black-berried Bryony Bryonia alba
• Box Buxus sempervirens
• Bulbous Corydalis Corydalis cava
• Castor-oil Plant Ricinus communis
• Christmas Rose Helleborus niger
• Cowbane Cicuta virosa
• Crown Vetch Coronilla varia
• Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna
• Erect Clematis Clematis recta
• Ergot Fungus Claviceps purpurea
• False Acacia Robinia pseudoacacia
• False Helleborine Veratrum album
• Forking Larkspur Delphinium consolida (= Consolida regalis)
• Foxglove Digitalis purpurea
• Hedge Hyssop Gratiola officinalis
• Hemlock Conium maculatum
• Hemp Cannabis saliva
• Henbane Hyoscyamus niger
• Iranian Poppy Papaver bracteatum
• Ivy Hedera helix
• Laburnum Laburnum anagyroides
• Large Yellow Foxglove Digitalis grandiflora
• Lily-of-the-Valley Convallaria majalis
• Lesser Periwinkle Vinca major
• Lords-and-Ladies Arum maculatum
• Male Fern Dryopteris filix-mas
• Meadow Saffron Colchicum autumnale
• Mezereon Daphne mezereum
• Monkshood Aconitum napellus
• Opium Poppy Papaver somnifertim
• Thornapple Datura stramonium
• Wild Lettuce Lactuca virosa
• Woolly Foxglove Digitalis lanata
• Yellow Pheasant’s Eye Adonis vernalis
• Yew Taxus baccata

Yellow Pheasant's Eye adonis vernalis

If plant poisoning is suspected, medical attention needs to be sought straight away.

For commercial cultivation, increased yields of the medicinally active substances are obtained by breeding varieties with a continuous, high concentration of the desired substances or by special preparation techniques.

Occasionally the poisons occur only in certain elements of the plant — the leaves, fruits or rootstock. For example, the flowers of Forking Larkspur are not poisonous, but the other parts of the plant, particularly the seeds, are very toxic.

A curious aspect of poisonous plants is that the concentration of toxic substances in them is not consistent; it varies according to such factors as the locality, the time of year, the time of day, the temperature and whether it is damp or dry, sunny or overcast.

Remember also that the everyday Potato (Solanum tuberosum) tuber is normally quite harmless, as long as it is not green (when green it is poisonous), but the flowers and young leaves are toxic.