Friday, September 21, 2012
The blue-green fronds of rue were admired for their beauty in the Middle Ages, and the intensely aromatic leaves were prized as a condiment, a medicament, and an amulet.?? Photograph by Carly Still
Here is a shadowed grove which takes its color
From the miniature forest of glaucous rue.
Through its small leaves and short umbels which rise
Like clusters of spears it sends the wind???s breath
And the sun’s rays down to its roots below.
Touch it but gently and it yields a heavy
Fragrance. Many a healing power it has ???
Especially, they say, to combat
Hidden toxin and to expel from the bowels
The invading forces of noxious poison.
???Hortulus, Walahfrid Strabo, translated by Raef Payne
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Tags: Anethum graveolens, Apicius, Apium graveolens, bitter, Capitulare de Villis, Dioscorides, Hildegard of Bingen, Hortulus, Mithridates VI, mithridatum, phytodermatitis, Pliny, rue, Ruta graveolens, St. Gall, Tacuinum Sanitatis, Walahfrid Strabo
Posted in Food and Beverage Plants, Fragrant Plants, Gardening at The Cloisters, Magical Plants, Medicinal Plants | Comments (0)
Friday, July 30, 2010
Above: Three images of the blessed thistle (Cnicus benedictus). The low stature and unremarkable appearance of this plant belie its medieval reputation as a plague cure and a panacea. The lax stems and spiny, light green leaves are covered with a fine, white down; the spines that subtend the developing flowerhead are a protection against grazing animals. The yellow flowers of this annual thistle appear in July; once the seeds have set, the plant dies. Photographs by Corey Eilhardt.
The humble Cnicus benedictus, a plant of waste ground and stony soil native to the Mediterranean, was a medieval panacea whose reputation survived undiminished into the Renaissance. The sixteenth-century English herbalist John Gerard notes that this wild medicinal plant of southern Europe was “diligently cherished in gardens in these Northern parts.” Gerard also attests that the herb was known everywhere in Europe by the medieval Latin name Carduus benedictus; the common names by which it is known today preserve this designation: blessed or holy thistle in English, benedikten distel in German; chardon b??nit or chardon santo in French, cardo benedetto in Italian, cardo bendito in Spanish.
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Tags: bitter, blessed thistle, Carduus benedictus, carline thistle, cataplasm, cnecos, Cnicus benedictus, Dioscorides, earbes Carduus Benedictus and Angelica, invasive, John Gerard, Maude Grieve, panacea, pestilence, plague, Pliny, Rufinus, Silybum marianum, thistle, Thomas Brasbridge, weed
Posted in Gardening at The Cloisters, Medicinal Plants | Comments (1)