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| Butterbur |
I am happy to say that life, here in the sticks, pretty much goes on as normal, by which I mean that each morning I still take Toby-dog out for his three mile hike, whether he likes it or not. Some dogs have a tough life.
This morning we headed off in the direction of the lovely old watermill and there I espied a very large coronavirus-like thing on the side of the lane.
Butterbur!
This weird looking plant starts off quite low to the ground but eventually opens up on a long stalk and the green leaves grow to look like four foot high rhubarb leaves.
This is the first one of this years crop, soon the lane leading to the watermill will be smothered in them. Until we moved here, about 14 years ago, I hadn't come across these strange flowers. Their preferred habitat is wet meadows, damp ditches and riversides.
A few years ago I did some research and found that Butterbur was one of the plants which they tried out as a cure for the Bubonic Plague.
These days extract of Butterbur is sold as a "herbal supplement used for pain, upset stomach, stomach ulcers, migraine and other headaches, ongoing cough, chills, anxiety, plague, fever, trouble sleeping (insomnia), whooping cough, asthma, hay fever (allergic rhinitis), and for irritable bladder and urinary tract spasms."
I copied the uses from the internet, noting that 'plague' was also included!
Please do not rely on this to treat the current 'plague'. It simply struck me as bearing a very similar shape to the coronavirus and the neat link to the plague made me smile.
Have a good weekend. Stay safe.
