Ox-eye daisies in a County Durham churchyard

 

St. Brandon’s, at Brancepeth, County Durham, is a shining example of the way in which an ancient churchyard can be managed for the benefit of people and native wild flowers. The south side of the churchyard is a wild flower meadow, with mown paths between 18th. and 19th. century memorial stones.

Throughout spring, drifts of snowdrops have been followed by daffodils and bluebells, then cowslips that last week ceded centre stage to thousands of waist-high ox-eye daisies Leucanthemum vulgare.

In The Englishman’s Flora (1960) botanist-author Geoffrey Grigson listed about 30 local, colloquial names for Leucanthemum vulgare; some familiar, like moon daisy, dog daisy and marguerite, others less so, like Billy buttons, crazy Bett, hayweed and poverty weed, that have fallen out of use.

You might expect that a plant known by so many names would have been part of the daily lives of past generations, used in herbal medicine.

According to John Pechey, in his The Compleat Herbal of Physical Plants (1694) it “cast forth Beams of Brightness” so just looking at it might do you good: a nature cure to boost mental wellbeing.

But there’s more: “The whole herb, stalks, leaves ad flowers, boyl’d in posset-drink, and drunk, I accounted an excellent remedy for an asthma, consumption and difficulty of breathing, “ he claimed.” ‘Tis very good in wounds and ulcers, taken inwardly, or outwardly applied,” he assured readers, and went on to mention a use that might have benefitted quaffers of too much chilled beer during the recent heatwave: “A decoction of the herb cures all diseases that are occasion’d by drinking cold beer when the body is hot.”

Pechey’s herbal is available to download or read on-line. Its full, less-than-snappy title is

The compleat herbal of physical plants : containing all such English and foreign herbs, shrubs and trees, as are used in physick and surgery : and to the vertues that are now in use, is added one receipt or more, of some learned physician : the doses or quantities of such as are prescribed by the Londond-physicians, and others, are proportioned : also directions for making compound-waters, syrups, simple and compound : electuaries, pills, powders, and other sorts of medicines : moreover, the gums, balsams, oils, juices, and the like, which are sold by apothecaries and druggists, are added to this herbal : and their virtues and sues are fully described