and the wonders of bog asphodel & honeysuckle
If a father-to-be ate the orchid’s large tuber the child would be a boy. If the mother ate the small tuber it would be a girl. According to Greek and Donegal mythology.
I have never seen so many orchids in bloom on the Mangerton commonage. In one area after getting to two hundred I decided counting was hopeless.
The shape of the orchid – a single erect stem over two round tubers – explains the Irish name Magairlin/male testicles. In Kerry and Cork the tuberous roots were considered a very effective love charm. Young girls made a powder from the roots and gave it to the young man of their fancy so he would marry them.
But please do not pick the orchids. The earliest unprecedented group that I saw this year on top of a ditch disappeared over night. Perhaps picked by little fingers as animals do not appear to eat them. Then the pleasure of these unique flowers was denied to so many others passing up Mangerton Road.
In ‘Hamlet’ Shakespeare included orchids among the ‘fantastic garlands’ draped on the drowned body of Ophelia. Orchids were also said to grow beside the Cross. The spots on its leaves have been explained as drops of blood which fell from Christ when he was crucified.
Record numbers of the star-like, brilliant orangey yellow flowers of the bog asphodel shine out on the boggy commonage at the moment.
In earlier centuries women used the asphodel to dye their hair.
The second part of the plant’s botanical name ‘ossifragum’ means ‘bone-breaking’. It was believed bog asphodel caused brittleness of the bones in sheep that ate it. This has been shown to be untrue. It is probable that the bone weakness is caused by the absence of mineral salts in the soil where the plant grows.
At dusk these evenings at the foot of Mangerton the scent of honeysuckle/woodbine perfumes the air. Samuel Pepys, the 17th century diarist, called it ‘the trumpet flower’ whose bugles ‘blow scent instead of sound’.
Herbalists used its flowers in potions for headaches, lung diseases and asthma.
There is an old superstition that if honeysuckle is brought into the house, a wedding will follow, and that its flowers placed in a girl’s bedroom will bring her dreams of love.
In the coming days I will tell you about the wonders of the Devil’s Bit Scabious, the miracles of Yarrow, black medick that is not black and has nothing to do with medicine and of the last of the record blooming of foxgloves!
– Frank Lewis
for more information or to book a stay at our self-catering holiday accommodation, Gallan Eile …
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