Reverb 11: April Prompt
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
April Prompt:
What's blossoming?
photo © myself 2011
Butterbur. No, not Barliman Butterbur the owner of The Prancing Pony in Bree. I mean the Common Butterbur, Petasites hybridus, (aka blatterdock, bog rhubarb, pestilence wort, butter-dock or sweet coltsfoot) which colonises our local river and canal banks, and pushes its thick stems of whitish-pink flower heads up through the mud at this time of year.
Butterbur gets its name from the former use of its large leaves to wrap butter during warm weather. In the herbals of the middle ages it was called the plague-flower for its efficancy in treating fevers and use as 'a soveraigne medicine against the plague'. In the 17th Century it was a noted treatment for coughs and asthma, and today it is stll used as a herbal remedy for hayfever and the prevention of migraines.
'The seeds of butterdock must be sowed by a young unmarried woman half an hour before sunrise on a Friday morning, in a lonesome place. She must strew the seeds gradually on the grass, saying these words:I sow, I sow!Then, my own dear,Come here, come here,And mow and mow!The seed being scattered, she will see her future husband mowing with a scythe at a short distance from her. She must not be frightened, for if she says, "Have mercy on me," he will immediately vanish! This method is said to be infallible, but it is looked upon as a bold, desperate, and presumptuous undertaking!'[Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales by James Orchard Halliwell Esq., 1849.]
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