Episode 38: Pigeon Steeped Potions & Weary Wildflowers- Houndstongue and Trout Lilly
Hello and welcome back to another episode in our potion series! This week we are Digging into two more ingredients from that infamous cauldron- tongue of dog and adders fork..luckily for us, these are once again plants, so everyone gets to keep their tongues and feet!
Starting off with the tongue of dog, most historians believe this is likely referring to houndstongue- a plant belonging to the borage family that can get up to four feet tall. It prefers wet, disturbed soil, but doesnt care too much about nutrients.
Houndstongue, or Cynoglossum officinale is native to europe, but has since spread to north america, where it is considered a noxious weed. It is a biannual that is covered in small, rough hairs- just like a lot of other family members. It has a row of small deep reddish purple flowers that have 5 lobed petals, then a smaller inner flower which contains the pollen. The leaves are often described as ‘hounds tongue” like, which really just means they are long, simple leaves that taper towards the end.
They can be pollinated by bees or by themselves, and each flower can produce four seeds- sometimes called nutlets that are covered with spiky little hooks- almost like velcro- that stick to the fur of other animals, allowing the plant to spread far and wide.
Another Name for HoundsTongue is actually “Rats and mice '' because, well, it apparently smells just like them ... .yikes. And it had some pretty interesting history!
For starters, let’s talk about how the heck it spread here to the US- turns out, it was a bit of an accident. We believe that houndstongue was brought to north america because it got mixed in with some wheat crops, where it quickly got out of hand Spreading it’s stink all over the continental US and beyond.
Besides just being super funky, this plant causes all kinds of problems for livestock due to a chemical it contains called pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which target the cells of the liver, blocking them from reproducing, and eventually leading to a painful death for our farmyard friends.
In people though, houndstounge was used in some….less conventional cures. In 1725, it was used to cure madness, as people believed it would dry up the humidity causing problems in the brain, but only if you rubbed the patient’s freshly shaven head with a mixture of brandy, made from rosemary, houndstounge, elderflowers, laurel, wormwood, honey water or white wine, sage, wormwood, a little salt, and a live pigeon or hen (presumably just briefly dunked in there??) for about 25 days. They could also drink that as a tea, but I don’t know why anyone would want to do that.
Later, it was used as a diuretic and to help combat venereal excess, lung disease, ulcers, baldness, and a number of other disorders, though none of those claims have ever been supported by any scientific evidence.
In this potion, I am assuming houndstongue was added purely for the putrid vibes and threatening energy it brings to the party..after all, if I had to choose a smell to bring on instant dread, it would be dead rodents.
On a slightly less stinky note, the next plant in our potion ingredient list is Adder’s fork, which is widely believed to be dogtooth violet, which- oddly enough is NOT a violet, and is sometimes also called a trout lilly! The plant in question- Erythronium americanum, is a perennial in the lilly family that forms large colonies of 8 inch tall yellow flowers, which droop their adorably weary heads towards their two spiky green leaves with flecks of maroon. These tiny guys are actually native to the US, which does make me wonder if maybe it could have been a different violet at the time, but most sources I could find specifically name this flower, as it’s also called rattlesnakes violet or serpents tongue. In witchcraft, it and it’s relatives were used to stop gossip and slander, and placed on the doorstep of your enemies to really make a statement.
These guys aren’t really used in medicine or found in a ton of folklore, but they are delightful, tiny little plants you are likely to find if you go for a walk in the woods this spring, and if you see them- I hope you say hello! And if you live in MN, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the pink version of these guys that ONLY grow in your state, and produce a super distinct bulb in the middle of their stock before they flower- you guys are some pretty lucky ducks, and I hope you feel every day how lucky you are to have so many cool plants.
While this was a bit of a shorter episode, I have some longer episodes and more exciting content coming your way in the next few weeks that I can’t wait to share with you! We will be diving into some super exciting plants for these last few episodes in the series, each with a ton of tall tales and plenty of wild true histories, so I think you’ll really dig them!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynoglossum_officinale#:~:text=Cynoglossum%20officinale%20(houndstongue%2C%20houndstooth%2C,plant%20of%20the%20family%20Boraginaceae.
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=eram5
The Shakespere Standard, http://theshakespearestandard.com
Cockayne, Oswald. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England: The History of Science Before the Norman Conquest, vols. 1-3. Bristol, England: Thoemmes Press. 1864-66.
Gledhill, D. The Names of Plants, 2nd ed. Cambridge: 1989.
Andrew K. Yang, Plant Names in Old and Middle English: Problems and Trends in Taxonomy
The Old English Herbarium (OEH) and Medicina de Quadrupedibus. Hubert Jan de Vriend, ed. Toronto: Oxford. 1984.
Tryskelion Press, Old World Names For Herbs And Plants, http://www.tryskelion.com/herbs_old_world_names_for_herbs.html
