Medieval herb garden blog 87: Vervain

Week 87 volunteer update

Today, Carole, Kim and Helen finally finished cutting-back the lavender! They then spent some time watching some mining bees. These bees have made holes in the soil above the trailing rosemary on the dry-stone wall below the keep.

They were very active today and a mating ball was seen rolling down the slope. A mating ball is made by male bees piling on top of a female bee in an attempt to mate. Given the time of year, it is likely that these bees are ivy mining bees 'Colletes hederae' rather than chocolate mining bees 'Andrena scotica'. The latter species dies out by July, leaving their eggs in the bank to develop over the autumn and winter.

Helen and Carole then spent some time cutting back the lemon balm, hyssop and curly woodsage. They also got on with dead-heading the marigolds.

Plant of the week: Vervain (verbena officinalis)

Vervain entered the language around 1300AD as 'verveine' or 'vervaine' from Old French. This comes from the classical Latin 'verbena' meaning 'a sacred bough, foliage, or ceremonial twig'.

Some suggest a derivation from the Celtic word 'ferfaen', 'fer' meaning 'to drive away' and 'faen' meaning 'a stone'. This is because the plant was used in traditional medicine to treat bladder stones.

'Officinalis' is Latin for 'belonging to an officina', referring to a room where medicinal and household goods were kept.

Its other names include: holy herb, cure all, common verbena, wizard’s herb, herb of enchantment, simpler’s joy, countryman's treacle, herb grace, herb of the cross, Juno's tears, Mercury's blood, pigeon grass, and tears of Isis.

Vervain is native to Great Britain and Europe. It is a columnar, upright, deciduous, herbaceous plant. It prefers to grow in any moist, but well-drained, neutral or alkaline, non-clay soil. It also prefers to be in full sun, in any position but north-facing. It grows to a height of 3 ft (90 cm) with a width of 2 ft (60 cm).

Vervain has pale green, square stems with toothed and lobed leaves that have curved teeth. It flowers between June and October and has tiny, pale, almost-lilac five-petalled flowers. Its flowers open gradually up a frail-looking spike, until there is just one flower still alive at its tip.

Each flower produces four small nutlets. The individual seeds are elongated, thin, and feature a ribbed, outer surface that are light-to-reddish brown in colour.