Thank you so much Claud Biemans for joining me on my daily walk this morning and for helping to identify some of the lovely plants which have been perplexing me for ages. Claud also shared some lovely food ideas for wild plants and was as pleased as me to see the Hoary plantain.

Here’s Claud standing next to a stately Wild Angelica (Angelica archangelica).

I’ve been watching this following herb for weeks now. It looked to me like it must be a Labiate due to the square stem cross section but which one! It smells absolutely amazing. When you brush the leaves or stem lightly, they release the aroma of just burned spices in a lightly oiled pan, ready to pop into a good Indian curry. There are so many Labiates but none I read about fitted this plant exactly. Claud knew it instantly as she has one which planted itself, into a terrace pot at home.

It is called Helmkruid in Dutch, Scrophularia nodosa in Latin and Common Figwort in English. I am still none the wiser as to what to do with it, if anything but now I’ll be finding out from a more informed position.

Also today, Pijpbloem, (Aristoloctia clematis), Birthwort in English. A very exotic looking plant which I’ll be researching. A photo another day, today I have found it is poisonous, used historically medicinally and can cause kidney failure when eaten.

Glaswort in Dutch, Parietarias officinalis in Latin and Pellitory of the wall, in English. It is plentiful in this part of the park and I hadn’t realised that this was the plant i see every day. It is a renowned medicinal herb. More later on this one, the Wiki link will give some useful information. Please see day 63 for corrected ID and details.

Veldhondstong in Dutch,
Cynoglossum officinale in Latin and Houndstongue in English.
This is a beautiful plant, again a new one to me which seems from it’s Latin name to be a plant of historic uses.

We also looked at a member of the bedstraw family, Hedge bedstraw, Wild Sage and Teasel. I’ll take photos of those another day.