Yellow loosestrife

23 Sunday Jul 2023

Posted by sconzani in flowers, wildflowers

Tags

British wildflowers, Lysimachia vulgaris, medicinal plant, yellow flowers, Yellow loosestrife

With their roots in the water along the edge of a local canal, these Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) plants were so exuberant and lush I initially thought they were some other species. They had obviously found the damp niche that suited them best.

230723 yellow loosestrife (1)

Though I would never advocate the use of herbal medicine (just being cautious about matters I don’t understand or have knowledge of), Yellow loosestrife did, apparently, have a large number of traditional uses as a medicinal plant, from treating diarrhoea and haemorrhaging to cleaning wounds and being used as a mouthwash. And the First Nature website reports on other common uses:

Yellow Loosestrife tied around the necks of oxen was reputed to keep irritating flies away from them. In the distant past these and several other kinds of ‘loosestrife’ plants were also used to get rid of infestations of flies in houses. The plants were dried and burned indoors, and toxins in the smoke drove out the flies (and no doubt also any human occupants).

230723 yellow loosestrife (2)

195/365 Imperial colours

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British wildflowers, Dyer’s greenweed, imperial colours, Marsh woundwort, purple wildflowers, Rosebay willowherb, Yellow loosestrife, yellow wildflowers

It occurs to me when looking at recent flower photos I’ve taken that the wildflowers currently in bloom have a very imperial look to them: masses of purple, the colour favoured by the emperors of Rome, and swathes of yellow, the colour that dominated the imperial wardrobe in China.

190714 1 marsh woundwort

Marsh woundwort (Stachys palustris), found growing in the wildflower meadows in Cardiff’s Hailey Park this week; once regarded as the most effective of the wound-healing woundwort family.

190714 dyers greenweed

Dyer’s greenweed (Genista tinctoria), plentiful at Lavernock Nature Reserve; also found in archaeological remains left by Vikings in York, proving its use as a yellow dye since at least the 9th century.

190714 rosebay willowherb

Rosebay willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium), firing up the conservation areas at Cathays Cemetery; nicknamed ‘bombweed’ during World War II when it grew in the London ruins created by German bombing raids.

190714 yellow loosestrife

Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), ablaze beside the River Taff in Cardiff; named in honour of Macedonian King Lysimachus who supposedly fed it to his cattle to calm them, hence lose + strife!

The interesting snippets about these plants were mostly extracted from my Flora Britannica.

Summer wildflowers

10 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Common comfrey, Common honeysuckle, Cornflower, Field bindweed, Fox and cubs, Hedge woundwort, Lesser stitchwort, Ox-eye daisy, Ragwort, White clover, Wood forget-me-not, Yellow loosestrife

As the summer progresses so, too, do the varieties of wildflowers that add colour to the roadside verges, beautify patches of waste ground, light up drab spots along hedgerows, adorn the edges of the trails I regularly walk, and sparkle in the conservation areas at my local cemetery.

These are some that have caught my eye in the past couple of weeks: Fox-and-Cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca), Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), Ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), Wood forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica), Hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica), Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), White clover (Trifolium repens), Common comfrey (Symphytum officinale), Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), Common honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), and the last, I think, is Lesser stitchwort (Stellaria graminea).