MHG Volunteer Blog 35: Common Fleabane

It's time for the latest blog from our dedicated team of volunteer gardeners at Pontefract Castle.

Find out more about their blog series here.

Another blustery day with intermittent rain. Helen cut back the Good King Henry and dug up some mammoth clumps of Cinqfoil. 

Helen and Lillie then weeded the top of the drystone wall. They took care to not disturb the many chocolate mining bees that have made their home in the soil below the grass.

A chocolate mining bee popping out to say hello!

Plant of the week: Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica)

This plant was called 'fleabane' because it was used to repel fleas. The Latin name 'Pulicaria' comes from 'Pulex' meaning flea. 'Dysenterica' refers to its other supposed ability to cure dysentery.

Other names are wild marigold, camels, harvest flower, pig-daisy and Job’s tears.

Common fleabane is native to Europe and Western Asia. It is a bushy, deciduous, stoloniferous (grows horizontal stems above the ground), perennial. It prefers damp or poorly-drained soil, in full or partial shade, in any aspect but north-facing.

When grown in favourable conditions, it will reach a height and spread of 3 ft. In the presently bone-dry Medieval Herb Garden it gets to about 12 inches.

It flowers from August to October. It has 1 inch, golden-yellow, composite, daisy-like flowers. These grow atop downy stems with stalkless, very downy, wavy-edged lanceolate leaves. The leaves are alternately arranged and clasp the stem. The basal leaves wither by the time it flowers.

The root is a creeping, scaly, underground rhizome. It sends up shoots at intervals, thus forming spreading clumps. These need to be controlled before they “take over” the garden.

Common fleabane growing in the Medieval Herb Garden

Culinary uses of fleabane

Fleabane is not used in cooking. The plant has a bitter, astringent and salty flavour.

Folklore and other facts about fleabane

The plant's smell is similar to carbolic soap. It was used to repel fleas and other insects. Dried leaves were hung indoors or burned as a fumigant.

Fleabane was thought to have protective qualities. Some traditions suggested it could be burned to cleanse stagnant energy or hung above doorways to ward off evil spirits.

The name Job's tears is linked to a tradition that Job used a decoction of this herb to cure his ulcers.

Most animals generally avoid fleabane due to its bad taste and pungent qualities. The plant is toxic to cats and dogs.

Fleabane is visited by a wide range of insects. These include hoverflies, honeybees, wasps, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies. Pollination is mainly successfully done by flies.

It is the main food plant for the fleabane tortoise beetle (Cassida murraea). It is also mainly eaten by four micromoths, Apodia bifractella, Ptocheuusa paupella, dusky plume (Oidaematophorus lithodactyla) and Digitivalva pulicariae.

Medieval uses of fleabane*

Fleabane was used more commonly in mainland Europe than in the UK. The plant's sap and infusions of the dried herb were used to treat dysentery.

A paste made from the plant was applied to wounds to promote healing and to treat other skin disorders and itchiness.

It was also used for coughs, jaundice, epilepsy and gastric problems.

The following is taken from Miss E. S. Rohde's 'Old English Herbals': 'Fleabane bound to the forehead is a great helpe to cure one of the frensie.'

*As always, this isn't to be considered medical advice today. Please don't use any plants mentioned in these blogs as medicine without advice from a doctor.