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A wide variety of plants growing in the Medieval Herb Garden on a sunny day

Medieval herb garden blog 96: Tansy

Thursday, November 12, 2026

Week 96 volunteer update

Carole returned to the Castle today and carried out the flower count. Seventeen species are still flowering despite the time of year! Then it was back to sweeping the leaves and Kim weeded the drystone wall.

Last Halloween, junior witches and wizards helped Carole scatter mullein seeds over the garden. They even used the drying mullein stalks as wands. We are pleased to see that some of the seeds have grown. Being biennial, the plants will produce some lovely flowering stalks next year!

A plant emerging from the ground. It has oval green leaves.

Mullein seeds planted last year at the Castle are starting to grow!

Plant of the week: Tansy (tanacetum vulgare)

'Tansy' comes from the Old French 'tanésie' which comes from the Latin 'tanacetum'. This in turn is thought to come from the Greek 'athanasia' meaning 'immortality' or 'undying.' This name may refer to its long-lasting flowers, or its use in embalming and burials.

'Vulgare' is Latin for 'common or ordinary'.

Tansy's other names are buttons, bitter buttons, cow bitter, buttonweed, ginger plant, golden buttons, hind-heal, and immortality.

Native to Great Britain and Europe, tansy is a very hardy, aromatic, upright, deciduous, flowering, perennial plant. Growing to a height of 5 ft (1.5 m) with a spread of 3 ft (90 cm), it will thrive in full sun in any well-drained soil in any aspect but north-facing.

It has erect, robust stems which usually branch towards the top of the stems. The leaves are alternate and deeply pinnately divided, giving them a fern-like appearance. Individual leaf divisions are narrow and toothed, ranging from narrow-elliptical to lanceolate or triangular.

The leaves are generally green to dark green and may be sparsely hairy or hairless. The lower leaves are approximately 8 to 12 in (20 to 30 cm long and 3–4 in (7.5 to 10 cm) wide but are smaller higher up the stem. When bruised or crushed, the leaves have a strong, distinctive aromatic odour, similar to 'camphor with hints of rosemary'.

Tansy flowers between June and September. Deadheading will encourage new growth and flowers. Between 20 and 200 small, yellow, button-like, composite, flower heads are produced in dense, almost flat-topped clusters at the ends of the branching stems. They normally lack ray petals. The 'button' is made up of many small, tubular, disc florets. The outer florets are female, while the inner disc florets are generally bisexual. The individual flower heads are approximately 0.2 to 0.4 inches (0.5 to 1 cm) across.

Tansy has a perennial, creeping rhizome system rather than a single taproot. The rhizomes are stout and may branch, producing new shoots at intervals.

The seed is a small, dry, one-seeded achene. It is relatively tiny, elongated and brownish when mature. The top bears a very small pappus, rather than the parachute-like structure seen in dandelions. Despite this lack of a parachute, tansy can self-seed over a vast area if the spent flowers are not removed early.

Tansy growing in the Medieval Herb Garden. Vibrant yellow flowers are in bloom!

Tansy in flower in the Medieval Herb Garden.

Culinary uses of tansy

Tansy has a 'cooling, mint-like sensation followed by a distinct medicinal or camphor-like bite'.

Historically, tansy was used as a substitute for nutmeg or cinnamon in herbal sauces, salads, cakes, custards and puddings. The leaves were added to omelettes, and the flowers were used as a garnish.

A recipe in the 1588 'Good Housewife’s Handbook' used the juice of tansy, feverfew, parsley, and violets. The juices were mixed with 'the yolkes of eight or tenne eggs, and three or four whites, and some vinegar, and put thereto sugar or salt.' This mix was then fried to produce a large flat sweet pancake.

However, tansy is toxic if consumed in large quantities. It contains the neurotoxin thujone which can cause severe convulsions and liver and brain damage.

Use of tansy as a dye plant

Tansy flowers produce a golden-yellow colour. The leaves give a pale yellow to yellow-green dye.

Folklore and other facts about tansy

The ancient Greeks may have been the first to cultivate tansy as a medicinal herb. By the eighth century AD it was grown in the herb gardens of Charlemagne and by Benedictine monks of the Swiss monastery of Saint Gall.

Tansy's powerful scent made it an important protective plant in folklore. In Britain, the fresh herb was placed around houses and other buildings to deter flies, ants, fleas, mice and other unwanted creatures.

Tansy was also used as a companion plant, especially with cucurbits like cucumbers and squash, or with roses or berries.

Tansy has been used as an insect repellent. Historically, the plant has also been associated with the preservation of bodies and embalming . It was often packed into coffins or made into wreathes to repel flies.

Liquor historian A.J. Baime reports that Tennessee whiskey magnate Jack Daniel enjoyed drinking his own whiskey with sugar and crushed tansy leaf in the nineteenth century.

Despite being an insect repellent, some insects, notably the tansy beetle ('Chrysolina graminis'), have resistance to tansy toxins and live almost exclusively on the plant. Tansy is also home to the ever-present crimson tansy aphid ('Uroleucon tanaceti').

Medieval medicinal uses of tansy*

In the fifteenth century, Christians began serving tansy with meals during Lent. This commemorated the Passover where bitter herbs were eaten by the Israelites.

They also ate tansy to control wind brought on by days of eating pulses, and to prevent intestinal worms caused by eating farmed fish.

Tansy was used as a cure for rheumatism, nervous, digestive, and stomach problems, toothache, fevers, sores, gout, sciatica, joint pains, and measles.

It was also used as a face wash to lighten and purify the skin, and to treat bruises, sunburn, pimples, and freckles.

*Needless to say, this isn't to be considered medical advice from us to you today! No herbs mentioned in these blogs should be used as medicine without advice from a doctor.

Medieval herb garden blogs

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