Evening primrose

We came across this patch of evening primroses when we were walking through the sand dunes at Cleethorpes local nature reserve at the weekend. There are about twenty very confusing evening primrose species and interspecific hybrids but I suspect this one is probably Oenothera glazioviana (formerly known as Oe.erythrosepala), which comes from North America. 

There are no native species of evening primrose in Britain but this is one very attractive alien species that no one seems to object to when it escapes into the wild. It seems to thrive in waste places, especially in poor, arid soils. Recently I've seen it flowering well in a supermarket car park and on the edge of a pavement in a city centre. The seeds are very small and I imagine they are easily distributed on birds' feet, and the pale yellow flowers, which seem almost luminous at dusk, attract moths which must very effective pollinators; Sir Edward Salisbury, former director of Kew Gardens and noted authority on weeds and alien plants, once calculated that these plants commongly produce around 33,000 seeds each.

One species of evening primrose, Oenothera biennis, is sometimes cultivated as a crop, on account of its herbal medicinal value. The oil extracted from the seeds contains high levels of linoleic acid, which has a variety of medicinal uses.

Elder - the Elixir of Life?

There seems to be a fine crop of elder Sambucus nigra berries in our local hedgerows this year. John Evleyn, the 17th. century writer, gardener and diarist, was a great fan of this ubiquitous hedgerow tree. “If”, he wrote, “ the medicinal properties of the leaves, bark, berries,&c., were thoroughly known, I cannot tell what our countrymen could ail, for which they might not find a rememdy from every hedge, either for sickess or wound. The inner bark of elder applied to any burning takes out the fire immediately; that, or in season, the buds boiled in water-grewel for a breakfast, has effected wonders in a fever; and the decoction is admirable to assuage inflammation. But an extract may be composed of the berries, which is not only greatly efficacious to assist longevity, but is a kind of universal preventive against all infirmatives whatever; and of the same berries is made an incomparable spirit, which drunk by itself, or mingled with wine, is not only an excellent drink, but admirable in the dropsy. The ointment made with the young buds and leaves  in May with butter is most sovereign for aches, shrunk sinews &c., and the flowers macerated in vinegar not only are of a grateful relish, but good to attenuate and cut raw and gross humours”. All of which may go some way to explaining why my maternal grandmother, who used to make some pretty potent elderflower champagne and elderberry wine, lived to a ripe old age...... although more recent research and opinion has been more circumspect about the safety of some of the folk medicine attributed to this plant. 

Elder shoots grow remarkably vigorously in their first year and I have vivid childhood memories of cutting these, hollowing out the pith and using them as pea-shooters. The hollowed-out twigs have also been used to make flutes and the generic name Sambucus supposedly comes from the Greek (?) sambuca, a musical instrument – although the word was originally applied to a stringed instrument rather than one that you blow. Elder pith, dissected from the centre of the stems, figured in my education when I was at school, for demonstrating electrical charges and for holding plant specimens that were then thin-sectioned for microscopy by hand, using a cut-throat razor (can you imagine Health and Safety allowing that in a school today!)

Recently elder as a natural resource has undergone something of a revival, with the popularity of elder flower cordials and elder flower presse, which has created an unprecedented demand for the inflorescences. Nice to see that at least some of the potential of our native biodiversity is being realised…..