|
|
 | Alexanders Other Names: Alisanders. Black Pot-herb.
Botanical Name: Smyrnium Olisatrum
Family: |
Description: |
Black Lovage is in leaf and flower not unlike an Angelica, and amateur collectors have sometimes mistaken it for Wild Angelica.
Alexanders, to use its more common name, is a large perennial herb, growing 3 or 4 feet in height, with very large leaves, doubly and triply divided into three (ternate), with broad leaflets; the sheaths of the footstalks are very broad and membraneous in texture. The yellowish-green flowers are produced in numerous close, rounded umbels without involucres (the little leaves that are placed often at the spot where the various rays of the umbel spring). The whole herb is of a yellowish-green tint. The fruit is formed of two, nearly globular halves, with prominent ridges. When ripe, it is almost black, whence the plant received from the old herbalists the name of 'Black Pot-herb,' the specific name signifying the same. (Olus, a pot-herb, and atrum, black.) |
Ancient Lore: |
ALEXANDERS
SMYRNIUM OLUSATRUM
It warmeth a cold stomach and openeth a stoppage to the liver and spleen.
It is also called Horse Parsley, Wild Parsley and the Black Pot-herb. Similar to Wild Angelica, it is sometimes mistaken for it by collectors. It is a biennial growing to about four feet (1.2 m) high and producing yellowish- green flowers.
Where to find it: It is usually cultivated in gardens, but prefers coastal regions.
Flowering time: Early to midsummer. The seed is ripe in late summer, and is almost black, hence the name Black Pot-herb.
Astrology: It is a herb of Jupiter and therefore friendly to nature.
Medicinal virtues: It is good to move women's courses, to expel the afterbirth, to break wind, to provoke urine, and helpeth the strangury. These things the seeds will do likewise. Boiled in wine or bruised and taken in wine the herb or seeds are effectual in the biting of serpents.
Modern uses: This herb is not used by professional herbalists at the present time; other remedies for flatulence, such as Fennel and Aniseed, are more popular. |
|
|