Dog's Flower Spring

Happy Blessed Spring!

Always my favourite time of the year so we took a little sojourn to an idyllic local wild place in a nearby village. As you can see from the above image, this was very popular with my black beauties.

As it was excellent dog walking weather, I thought I'd do a little blog on dog's mercury (Mercurialis Perennis L), a common member of the spurge family. It is carpeting the woodlands at the moment and can extend its range up to 3400 ft, so unless you live in the Fens or northern Scotland, you can't miss it.

'Dog', as in dog rose, simply means common or inferior but it has other interesting names including boggart flower, dog's medicine and snake's flower, as it is also found in the shady, damp places that poisonous snakes, goblins and boggarts were thought to inhabit.

All parts of the plant are poisonous but considered thermolabile (destroyed by cooking), and that drying also renders it innocuous. However, even this must be debated as i the 1980's, a couple from North Wales mistook dog's mercury for brooklime, (which bears very little resemblance) and suffered severe gastrointestinal problems and inflamed kidneys. Fortunately, they had cooked the vast quantities they injested first and made a complete recovery. Cattle nearly always leave dog mercury alone, no doubt why poisons developed in plants in the first place, although a few animals have been less discerning and suffered the consequences. As always with foraging, NEVER eat anything that you're not 100% certain of identifying. I'm sure it must have been added to meals for malicious reasons over the centuries.

Named after the god Mercury, who is said to have discovered its medicinal properties, herbalists loved it. Dioscorides and Theophrastus both believed that the sex of a child could be predetermined by the selective use of either male or female extracts for three consecutive days following conception. This being entirely due to the fact that male and female flowers are carried on separate plants. I hope they used extremely tiny doses as at the very least it is a reliable laxative!

In 1693 a family from Shropshire was afflicted after dining on dog's mercury and bacon. A poor daughter perished. So don't say I didn't warn you!

Personally, I think this little, common perennial is too rarely given a second glance, which is a tad undeserved. I find its bright, perky green spikes, a welcoming carpeting indicator for the beginning of spring. It nestles among the bluebell leaves and who doesn't adore the prospect of a British bluebell wood? All of nature's verdent loveliness, just around the corner. Aren't we indeed blessed? It's the dog's do-dahs. Bring it on. Happy Spring!

With love, Annie x

© Norfolk Psychics 2016

Bibliography

Freethy Ron: From Agar to Zenry (Crowood, 1985)

Jordan Michael: A Guide to Wild Plants (Millington Books Ltd, 1976)

Wright John: River Cottage Hedgerow Handbook (Bloomsbury, 2010)

#dogsmercury #wildflowers #nature #spring