In the course of the last years, I have found several plants or insects in my garden that are considered rare. But this year I didn’t have that luck – yet.
Until yesterday… When we were in the garden, hubby suddenly indicated a plant that stood along the hawthornhedge, and asked if I knew its name and if I had planted it. Both questions I had to answer negative.
And I really love it to search for some unknown plant in my books, and soon I found it was some Parietaria-species. In Belgium we have two native species, Spreading pellitory (Parietaria judaica) and Pellitory-of-the-wall (P. officinalis). Both are rather rare, although the former isn’t considered as threatened yet.
To shorten a long story: after some searching around, it came out that the species in my garden is the rarer one.
Pellitory-of-the-Wall is a member of the Urticaceae, the nettle family, but doesn’t give you the burning… The species-name ‘officinalis’ indicates that the plant has been used as a medicinal herb. Above all, it is said to have diuretic properties.
At present, the herb is almost obsolete, but I found that “Den herbarius in dyetsche“, a Flemish herbal printed around 1500, where a lot of medicinal uses of the plant are described.
Pellitory-of-the-Wall is in Dutch ‘Groot Glaskruid’, which can be translated as ‘Greater Glass-wort’. (Spreading Pellitory is ‘Klein Glaskruid’, ‘Small, Lesser Glass-wort’.
I’m always interested in the etymology of plantnames, and found the explanation in the famous herbal of Rembert Dodoens. This 16th Century Herbalist explains that Pellitory-of-the-Wall is used to clean glasses, because of the course surface of the leaves.
The English ‘Pellitory-of-the-wall’ indicates the preferred habitat of the plant, although it is rather the Spreading Pellitory (which is sometimes called Pellitory-of-the-wall too), that is most often found on walls.
According to Wikipedia, the herb has been used to prepare ‘metheglines’, spiced meads, and I could indeed find some recipes. No, I didn’t try them. And I can hardly imagine this herb can improve the taste of mead. It absolutely has no aromatic taste, only a slightly bitter tinge.
But I’m happy: one more rare species that volunteers in my garden!
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Groot Glaskruid | Pellitory-of-the-Wall | Parietaria officinalis Parietaria officinalis |
Previous Journals
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Shade behind barn garden
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Wilde kardinaalsmuts | European Spindle | Euonymus europaeus and Mixed hedge around garden
Later Journals
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Vegetable garden , Peultjes (Snow pea) 'Grijze roodbloeiende' , Peultjes | Snow pea 'Norli' , Sug...
Comments
graibeard wrote:
Just so long as it’s not this one, otherwise known as asthma weed here. I can assure you that it lives up to its name. An absolute beast of a plant – says I.
Posted on 27 Sep 11 (over 1 year ago)
AnneTanne wrote:
No, your plant is the other one, ‘Klein Glaskruid’.
And you’re right, as I was searching for more information about ‘my’ plant, I read that the other one was known for its allergenic properties, but although they are closely related, this doesn’t seem to be the case with P. officinalis.
Both plants are rare here, although there is a small town in the Netherlands (Middelburg) that – among botanists – is known for it’s nice collection of P. judaica (your plant) on its walls. But I guess that apart from that town, nowhere grows enough of this plant to cause real problems.
(For me, hazels and alders are my biggest concern when it comes to allergy…)
Posted on 27 Sep 11 (over 1 year ago)
AnneTanne wrote:
I was wrong: “Parietaria pollen allergens (officinalis, judaica, lusitanica, creatica) are one of the most common causes of pollinosis in the Mediterranean (Spain, France, Italy, and Croatia). Parietaria has very long period of pollination, often reaching peaks of more than 500 grains/m3 of air at the beginning of June, and very strong allergenic properties.”
(Croation Medical Journal, 1999 Mar;40(1):42-8.)
Posted on 27 Sep 11 (over 1 year ago)
graibeard wrote:
For an embarrassingly long time I was kept inside because of that weed. I do suffer from hay-fever on occasion but when a bad bout of Industrial Dermatitis forced a change on my outdoor pursuits, the asthma weed introduced itself and took over the fence lines, as well as amongst the old (now gone) orchard. Plants that were probably 600mm (2’) high with just as much spread.
I literally couldn’t work outside because of it, and it took probably two seasons (years) to work out that it was the problem. Once it was all removed by the family, life has returned to normal for me.
I can’t get too close to an established (flowering) plant without getting a sniffle or two, if I disturb the plant in any way (release the pollen) then it’s “all over red rover”. That’s the end of my outdoor time for the day.
I have an unbelievable reaction to it. It’s ultra nasty stuff!
Now, that’s not to take anything away from your pleasure and enjoyment in finding your rare specimens, but you do have the absolute best spot for it – that’s over the ocean and far away. :-))
(I think I’ve sniffed 4 times and scratched my nose twice during this – LOL)
Posted on 27 Sep 11 (over 1 year ago)
flowerweaver wrote:
Here in Texas we have the native Parietaria pennsylvanica known as Cucumber Pellitory. It tastes very much like cucumber and is good in salads. It is also a larval food for the Red Admiral butterflies. It used to grow profusely down in my creek, but I must look very deliberately to find any now. I’m unsure if it was killed off by our extreme drought or if our free-ranging chickens ate all of it!
@graibeard Sorry to hear your Pellitory caused so much grief!
Posted on 28 Sep 11 (over 1 year ago)
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