Herbal Folklore

On Betony

If you were to wander in Scotland along the hedgerows, or by the banks of the Tweed near St Boswells in summer, you might, in the former place, come across hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)--see lower illustration-- and in the latter place, marsh woundwort (S. palustris). These are two local relatives of betony, and have two-lipped flowers ranging in colour from pale pink to purple. They belong to the same family as thyme (Labiatae). Hedge woundwort is known in Gaelic as Lus nan Sgor or ‘Plant of the Sharp Rocks’, while marsh woundwort is known as Brisgean nam Caorach or ‘Brittle One of the Sheep’ (Scott, 2000: 38, 176). You are however unlikely to find betony--see top illustration--(Stachys officinalis, S. betonica, Betonica officinalis; Gaelic lus Beathaig) in the wild; even in 1931, Grieve noted that betony was “by no means common in Scotland” (1971:97). Having said that, it has been found on the Isle of Raasay, and also by the ruins of an old monastery above the harbour in Portree on the Isle of Skye (Henriksen, 2008: pers comm).

A native of central and southern Europe, betony is not only scarce in the northwestern corner of Europe and Scandinavia but also rare in both Scotland and Ireland; it occasionally naturalises in North America (Barker, 2001: 373; Wood, 1997: 165). It was thought to be cultivated specially in herb gardens in the Highlands since it was widely used in Gaelic medicine and rarely found there in the wild: the Highlands have little in the way of limestone woodlands which the wild herb prefers (Beith, 1995). Betony, said Culpeper in 1649, “grows frequently in woods, and delights in shady places” (1953: 30); it was still being cultivated for medicinal use in British country cottage gardens at the beginning of the twentieth century (Hatfield, 2005).

The name Betony is derived from the French bétoine and late Latin *betonia for the Latin betonica; Pliny said vettonica was “a Gaulish name for a plant discoved by a Spanish Tribe called Vettones” (COED, 1991:149). Known to Dioscorides (fl. 40-65 AD) as bettonike, it features in his Book IV: II on herbs and roots (1934). The plant to which he and other writers from classical times referred is thought to be B. alopecurus L. Our wood betony, Betonica officinalis, is thought to have arisen in the Alps in the Middle Ages (Wittstein, 1882: 82-3). Vittonica even appears in the inventory of Charlemagne’s (†814) imperial gardens (Asch, 1968).

Grieve (1971) relates that betony was cultivated in monastic and apothecary physic gardens for its medicinal virtues as well as the belief that it was “endowed with power against evil spirits” (97); thus it was planted near church buildings and hung round the neck as a charm. Erasmus, she says, relates that such an amulet sanctified the wearer, being effective at ‘driving away devils and despair’ and guarding against ‘fearful visions’ (97). Betony’s traditional popularity as a remedy is reflected in the old Italian proverb ‘Sell your coat and buy betony’ (Grieve, 1971: 98). Betony, classed as a native plant, was used in Scottish medicine in the early 17th century (Milliken & Bridgewater, 2004). It was taken for headaches and hangovers, and as a tea for every day use among the highlanders (Beith, 1995).

References

Asch, J (1968) “ ‘And let the gardener have on his house the Beard-of-Jove’ ”, Garden Journal 18 (5): 134-47

Barker, J (2001) The Medicinal Flora of Britain and Northwestern Europe West Wickham: Winter Press

Beith, M (1995) Healing Threads: Traditional Medicines of The Highlands and Islands Edinburgh: Polygon

Compact Oxford English Dictionary [‘COED’] (1991) 2nd ed Oxford: Clarendon Press

Culpeper, N (1953) The Complete Herbal Birmingham: Kynoch Press (privately for ICI)

Dioscorides (1934) The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides AD 512 Englished by John Goodyer 1655 ed RT Gunther Oxford: University Press

Grieve, M (1971) A Modern Herbal New York: Dover

Hatfield, G (2005) Memory, Wisdom and Healing Stroud: Sutton Publishing

Henriksen, M (2008) personal communication to the writer in Portree, May 2008 on BSBI recorded sites of Stachys officinalis.

Johns, CA (1909) Flowers of the Field, edited C Elliott; London: George Routledge and Sons, Limited. Illustrations scanned from colour plate facing page 226.

Milliken, W & Bridgewater, S (2004) Flora Celtica Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd

Scott, M (2000) Scottish Wild Flowers Glasgow: Collins

Wittstein, GC (1882) Handwörterbuch der Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreichs Breslau: Verlag von Eduard Trewendt

Wood, M (1997) The Book of Herbal Wisdom Berkeley: North Atlantic Books

Anne Barker MNIMH, Medical Herbalist © 2009