While

 

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

in the light

silver as a guest

while you're prolonging the medication night

What here is not, there will be

The poplars behind the gym

moving, are a hymn

There will be the switch time

from pity into sorrow

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

But really, what's happening?

What journey takes you anywhere?

The rash landscape eases you out of it

foreign body

You can hammer the landscape

like a digital clown

and say you're sorry

for what went down

tough grubber

an OK face to be

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

Dead, upright elms

mewing of a high kite

rainy brambles, lime litter.

Mushrooms perfect and

in younger days

we stamped on them.

bits of toast too dry for the magpies
Between the units distant hills

Fences stubborn thickets

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

Egg tea, wren

charging

Memory of the rain

in the wet leaves

And maybe there's a bead from the country,

so fully explored

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

The boy concentrates

lying in the kitchen sofa

table half-laid for breakfast

with last night's washed-up plates

sun through the mosquito screens

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

A landscape of little pools obscured by melon-coloured vegetation

Aircraft spraying, climbs into the morning 

horses too valuable

Systems reprocessing untethered terms

Unlike everybody else, the academic

is paid to be honest

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

When we were bouncing

Splashing in the blow-up pool

Lying on the floor drawing pictures

Singing along to 3D animation 

Eating cucumber and arguing

Brushing each other's hair

Sorting what's left

of our jewellery collections 

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

The search for rocksalt standards in art

art standards

standards in art criticism

bricks, weeds, horizons

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

Pardon me

I was for sale

I drank and smoked

I read what I might have burnt instead

Excused myself because of the grey sky

Emigrated for good, left one story for none,

and can't you say the same?

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica). Oldford (Somerset), 29 July 2023.

Upright Hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica, Sv: Rödkörvel). 

Throughout British Isles except the extreme north. South and west Sweden (only reaching the Baltic in Uppland and Åland). Wide old-world distribution, from Japan to Western Europe. The late-summer successor to Cow Parsley and Rough Chervil.

Bank Holiday weekend

Marram (Ammophila arenaria) and Sand Couch (Elytrigia juncea) from Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

So we went to the seaside, of course. These photos are from Weston-super-mare and especially the dunes at nearby Sand Bay, which you reach by an exciting open-top bus ride. 

Weston-super-mare, 27 August 2022.

Saltwort (Salsola kali). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

Saltwort (Salsola kali). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

Saltwort (Salsola kali). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

It usually grows on rocks and cliffs, but sometimes (as here) on sand.

Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

Sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). Sand Bay, 28 August 2022.

Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris) from Clarence Park, Weston-super-mare, 27 August 2022.

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria)

 

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

A colony of Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria, Sw: Kirskål) beside the River Frome, looking very beautiful in fruit. 

Older vernacular names include Herb Gerard (Lyte translating Dodoens' Herbal, 1578), Gout-wort and Ashweed (Gerard's Herbal, 1597). There are many other variants: Bishop's Weed, Goutweed, Dog Elder. . . But the names mainly fall into two categories: those that note the passing resemblance of the compound leaves to Elder or Ash, and those referring to its use as a treatment for gout. Sources differ as to whether St Gerard, Bishop of Toul (c. 935 - 994) actually used the herb himself, or was just the saint that medieval gout-sufferers usually prayed to.  

The Swedish name, on the other hand, refers to the plant being edible -- kål means cabbage -- (especially the still-folded young leaves and leaf stems, gathered before any flower stems are produced). 

Gerard (the herbalist, not the saint) and Culpeper both confirmed the effectiveness of Ground-elder for aching joints and inflammations. It could be taken internally or applied as a poultice. 

The plant is native to most of mainland Europe, but is only an introduction in the British Isles, often found near monastic ruins but probably planted ever since Roman times for its medicinal and culinary properties. In Sweden, too, it's generally considered an introduction, seemingly from as far back as the Iron Age.

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

The longest section of the English Wikipedia entry on Ground-elder is, I'm sorry to say, headed by the dread word "Control" and is effectively an advert for glyphosates (Roundup et al), a repellent intrusion given the controversy over glyphosate use (which is not even mentioned here, but is well documented under the Wikipedia entry for Glyphosate). It's quite true that colonies of Ground-elder are difficult to eliminate, if you are not willing to do the hard work of digging and sifting out all the rhizome fragments (don't put them in the compost heap!). Since Ground-elder is fairly resistant to glyphosates, the proposed solution on our gardening sites is of course to use more glyphosates, in repeated applications. I'd suggest that a bit of patient trowel work, even if you don't succeed in eliminating all the Ground-elder on your first attempt, has got to be a better solution than poisoning your garden's ecosystem. You could also try the method used in Sweden, covering the whole patch with wet newspaper and then firmly anchored black plastic, thus excluding all light; but you'll have to leave this apparatus in place for two years, so it's a bit drastic. 

The Environmental Impacts of Glyphosate (Friends of the Earth Europe, 2013):

https://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/press_releases/foee_5_environmental_impacts_glyphosate.pdf

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

Ground-elder, in the British Isles anyway, spreads more by subsoil rhizome activity and by humans carting soil from one place to another, than by seed. The seeds are relatively small by Apiaceae standards, egg-shaped and often tipped with two persistent styles bent back on themselves. The umbel has no bracts or bracteoles.

Some impressively comprehensive information (description, uses, properties):

https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/goutweed/

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

Odours that rise
When the spade wounds the roots of tree,
Rose, currant, raspberry, or goutweed,
Rhubarb or celery;

(from "Digging" by Edward Thomas. Source.)

My family roots are considered worthy,
before your very eyes, the glorious 'ground elder',
one can visualise a vigourous nature,
in which it has been shown, uplifted
to the point of recognition, the rhizome root
but where there' s need, not to be eradicated?

(from "My Family Roots -- The Ground Elder" by Titus Llewellyn. Source.)

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

Ground-elder (Aegopodium podagraria). Frome, 4 August 2022.

Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium)

 

Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium). Frome, 10 September 2020.

Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium, Sw: Vildpersilja), growing where we usually see it: an opportunistic weed in and around towns, with a special liking for the foot of walls. It's common but I never see it in huge numbers. And it rarely gets much bigger than this: about 50cm.

For such an unloved plant it's remarkably good at hanging in there (though for reasons that are unclear it may have declined at the limit of its range in the far NW British Isles). It's very poisonous, and could be confused with edible herbs such as parsley and coriander, so it's caused more than its fair share of mischief over the years.

It is the only species in its genus, an annual or biennial that's native to most of Europe and a bit further east (though it hardly gets into the Iberian peninsula). The name Aethusa refers, according to Den virtuella floran, to the shining surface of the leaves, whose rather dark blue-green is a good clue from a distance. As ever, I wonder how a plant with such a liking for cultivated ground managed to get by before man came along; was it where animals burrowed, or in places where the ground was naturally disturbed, such as landslips and crumbling clifftops? 

Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium): hairless hollow stem. Frome, 10 September 2020.

Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium): immature fruits. Frome, 10 September 2020.

Flowers of Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium). Frome, 10 September 2020.

Flowers of Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium). Frome, 10 September 2020.

Perhaps Linnaeus' Aethusa seemed like a shining name because she was a daughter of one of the Pleiades.

Aethusa: Daughter of Poseidon by the Pleiad Alcyone; bore Eleuther by Apollo.

Pausanias 9.20.1 (re Tanagra in Boeotia): "The people of Tanagra say that their founder was Poemander, the son of Chaeresilaus, the son of Iasius, the son of Eleuther, who, they say, was the son of Apollo by Aethusa, the daughter of Poseidon."

Young leaves and budding umbel of Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium). Frome, 10 September 2020.

Aethusa cynapium is valued by homoeopaths: in the literature the key visual image is a baby violently sicking up mother's milk but this can also relate to troubles with other human transactions, e.g. a psychopathological decision to refrain from communication with other people. The Aethusa type is typically fond of animals instead. Cf. George Vithoulkas:

http://kaisrani.com/aethusa-cynapium-homeopathic-remedy-materia-medica-viva-george-vithoulkas/

Hanging bracteoles on opening umbel of Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium). Frome, 10 September 2020.

The best ID feature is the distinctive hanging bracteoles that you see on emerging umbels. ("Bracteoles" hang off the secondary umbels. Aethusa has no "bracts" i.e. similar growth at base of primary umbel.)

These bracteoles protect the emerging umbel but have no use later and stop growing. Thus they are relatively unnoticeable on a fully open umbel (see below). 

The less noticeable bracteoles on fully open umbel of Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium). Frome, 10 September 2020.

Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium): maturing fruits turning biscuit-coloured. Frome, 10 September 2023.

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Fool's Parsley (Aethusa cynapium) as a specimen plant. Catherine Street, Frome, 18 July 2023.

This, if I'm not mistaken, is Fool's Parsley being grown as a specimen plant, a role it performs remarkably well!

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Garden Parsley (Petroselinum crispum). Langtoft, 11 July 2023.

Just for contrast, here's what Garden Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) looks like when it bolts. Note that this species has both bracts and bracteoles.

[Google will likely assign the images in this post to the wrong species -- make sure you don't!]

Bracts and bracteoles on Garden Parsley (Petroselinum crispum). Langtoft, 11 July 2023.

Crisped leaves of Garden Parsley (Petroselinum crispum). Langtoft, 11 July 2023.

The familiar crisped leaves of Garden Parsley. But flat-leaved varieties are common too.

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-- Parnassus with Crassus sounds good.

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Stone Parsley (Sison amomum)

My floral companion over the darkest time of the year was a specimen of Stone Parsley (Sison amomum) that made a very belated decision to throw up a flowering stem, when we were already well into autumn. In the spring I had transplanted two Stone Parsley plants from a nearby verge. (The other one had flowered at midsummer and was long gone.)

The carrot family (Apiaceae, formerly called Umbelliferae) contains many species that make wonderful subjects for photographs, but Stone Parsley isn't one of them. The adult plant consists almost entirely of narrow, divergent, stems making a zigzag network in the air. They terminate in small, widely separated, white flowers, which mature into small dark fruits. There's just nothing for the camera to focus on.

But that didn't stop me trying, and I took hundreds of snaps of this plant and of others (Stone Parsley is very common in Swindon). The photos here, for what it's worth, were the best.

One cobwebby morning.

From Dioscorides' De Materia Medica (50 - 70 CE). This is from the translation available online by Tess Anne Osbaldeston (2000). As ever, a degree of doubt exists about which species Dioscorides (a physican in Cilicia, SE Turkey) was referring to. 

3-64. SISON

Sison is a little seed similar to apium [3-77] that grows in

Syria — somewhat long, black, with an acrid taste. It

is taken in a drink for the spleen, painful urination, and

retention of the menstrual flow. The inhabitants use it for

a sauce, eating it with cucurbita [2-164] boiled with

vinegar. It has (as it were) many little grains on the tops.

[SUGGESTED: Sison amomum, Sium amomum, Sium aromaticum

— Hedge Sison, Bastard Stone Parsley]

The most frequently repeated fact about Stone Parsley is that the crushed plant has a nauseating smell of petroleum. I'm sure this is true, but my own sense of smell is so fitful that I've yet to experience it.

Despite the smell, it's apparently edible and the seeds have been used as a condiment. The stems are said to taste like celery.

The 1684 sex and midwifery manual known as Aristotle's Masterpiece talks about Stone Parsley's usefulness for cleansing the womb, suggesting that it may be abortifacient.

Stone Parsley doesn't occur in Sweden. It's considered sub-Atlantic / sub-Mediterranean. In the UK it mostly occurs SE of a line from Lincolnshire to Glamorgan, but even within that region its frequency varies greatly. I never noticed it around Hastings (E. Sussex), nor do I ever see it around Frome (Somerset), but in residential West Swindon it grows all along the footpaths and shelter-belts, often in large numbers.

Small snails on the upper part of the main stem, January 2020.