Tansy Tanacetum vulgare, flowering in Wolsingham churchyard
this week.
A wild flower species that’s often found near human
habitation because it was so convenient to be able to gather it close to home.
Full of pungent chemical compounds, of untested toxicity,
its leaves, at various times in history, have been recommended by herbalists -
- as an antiseptic treatment for wounds
- for enhancing female fertility and preventing miscarriages. “Let those women who desire children,” wrote Nicolas Culpepper, “love this herb, ‘tis their best companion, their husband excepted,”
- as food flavouring, in tansy cakes made with milk, eggs and flour
- as an insect repellent, rubbed into fresh meat to keep flies away
- in burials, interred with corpses to keep worms at bay
Some know the golden inflorescences of tansy as ‘bachelors’ buttons’, a colloquial name applied to numerous other wild flowers.
Geoffrey
Grigson, in The Englishman’s Flora, listed the same name, applied in various
counties, to flower of marsh marigold, buttercups, columbine, red campion,
white campion, greater stitchwort, shining crane’sbill, herb robert, pennywort,
lesser periwinkle, field scabious, devil’s-bit scabious, burdock, cornflower
and knapweed.
And that, in a nutshell, is why an internationally agreed
scientific name, derived from classical languages that are universally
recognised, is such an aid to communicating knowledge about the living world,
avoiding confusion.
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