Medieval herb garden blog 90: Motherwort

Week 90 volunteer update

More cutting back this week. Kim pulled up the weld, cut back the Good King Henry and common thyme. She then started to weed around the area near the signpost. Helen tackled the soapwort, chopping it back and pulling up the new runners.

In the meantime, Carole pulled up the nigella and weeded the large woad bed by the gatehouse. She then moved the dyer’s greenweed, which had been getting buried by the woad, to a better position at the back of the bed.

The prostrate rosemary on the drystone wall under the keep is looking very well at the moment. It will probably need a 'haircut' soon, like the rosemary on the main wall.

The prostrate rosemary on the drystone wall under the keep: soon to be in need of a trim!

Plant of the week: Motherwort (leonorus cardiaca)

'Mother' comes from the Old English 'mōdor'. It refers to the plant's long history of use in treating various women’s health issues. 'Wyrt' is an Old English word and originally from the Proto-West Germanic word for a plant, 'wurti'.

'Leonurus' comes from the ancient Greek words 'leon' ('lion') and 'oura' ('tail'), describing the shape of the plant's flowering spikes. 'Cardiaca' comes from the Latin 'cardiacus'. This comes from the Ancient Greek 'kardiakos' ('about the heart'), derived from 'kardia' ('heart'). The name demonstrates its use in treating heart palpitations and anxiety. Its other names are throw-wort, lion’s ear, lion’s tail, and cow wort.

Motherwort is native to Central and Northern Asia. It is an upright, hairy, aromatic, rhizomatous, deciduous, herbaceous perennial. It prefers to grow in any moist but well-drained soil in partial shade. It grows to a height of up to 6 ft (180 cm) and a width of 3 ft (90 cm).

Motherwort has a squarish stem which is covered in short hairs. The opposite leaves have serrated margins and are palmately lobed with long petioles. Basal leaves are wedge shaped with three points, while the upper leaves have three to five. They are slightly hairy above and greyish beneath.

Flowering between June to September, motherwort's pink to lilac flowers appear in leaf axils on the upper part of the plant. The outer protective layer of each flower is bell-shaped and has five sepals. The corolla is irregular, 0.3 to 0.5 inches (0.75 to 1.25 cm) long, fused, long-tubed with two lips. The upper lip is convex and covered with white hairs and the lower lip is three-lobed and downward-curving and spotted with red. There are four protruding stamens, two short and two long.

As the plant matures, the calyx (the cup-like structure of sepals that originally held the flower) dries out and hardens. It forms incredibly vicious, sharp, five-pointed spines that enclose the developing seeds (nutlets).  Arranged in tight whorls along the tall stems, these hardened seed heads can easily pierce through gardening gloves. Each individual nutlet is three-edged (tetrahedral or trigonous) and slightly hairy at the top. The seeds are dark brown to light brown when mature, typically about 2 to 3 mm long.

It has an extensive shallow root system with short rhizomes forming large, tough colonies.

Motherwort in flower in the Medieval Herb Garden.