In praise of the seed – herb seeds for collecting


and using in remedies by Caroline Sheldrick MNIMH


HIGHLIGHTING HERBS


As the long, hot summer draws away and the days become cooler, flowering plants set seed to produce the next generation.


Many of the plants used as herbs, either culinary or medicinal, set seed that is a reliable source of new plants. In the case of annuals, collecting this seed will save having to buy fresh seed next season, and is particularly useful if you grow a variety in large quantities – in my case, pot marigolds.


For biennials (which flower in the year after seed is sown) saved seed allows us to sow in the flowering year, thus giving flowering plants each year.


Perennial herbs can often be propagated by several methods, including by cuttings and division, but collecting seed is usually helpful if you want to raise your own plants, or have a stock to give away or swap.


Fennel is mildly oestrogenic and the tea is helpful during the menopause


The other reason for collecting herb seeds is that in some medicinal plants, the seeds are used in remedies. Let’s start with the what, and proceed to the how, as the method of collection is similar for most plants and the requirements are few, if non-negotiable.


Let us pause first to wonder at the seed. Not only does a seed – sometimes as small as dust – store the genetic information for future growth and reproduction, it also often incorporates a mechanism for dispersal. Seeds may have hooks to catch on to passing animals, or parachutes to catch the wind.


They are sensitive to moisture, temperature and light, and even gases in the soil, so as to germinate at the best time. They have a built-in period of dormancy; some have a short one and need to grow away soon, some have incredibly long dormancy and will germinate after decades, even centuries.


In a seed is everything, except water, that the plant needs to grow until it can make its own food by photosynthesis with green leaves, by which time it has grown many hundred-fold.


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Feverfew, sweet cicely and good King Henry are perennial herbs which are worth growing from seed


Country Gardener


No wonder they are storehouses of valuable nutrients. Seeds are humankind’s primary food staples (rice, wheat, soya, corn, barley and oats are seeds).


In the July/August issue I listed many of the labiates with traditional use in herbal medicine. These are all perennial plants, many of them wild, but some of which feature in gardens. They are plants largely grown for their foliage, especially the aromatics such as thyme, lemon balm and sage.


But the flowers set seed, and as they die and dry off the seed can be collected. Betony Betonica officinalis, Motherwort Leonurus cardiaca, White horehound Marrubium vulgare, Lemon balm Melissa officinalis, Cat mint Nepeta cataria, White deadnettle Lamium album, Calamint Calamintha ascendens, Marjoram Origanum vulgare and Skullcap Scutellaria lateriflora are all attractive plants which deserve a place in the perennial border or the herb garden. The dried leaves of each of these labiates have medicinal properties. Most noteworthy are White horehound, an effective expectorant for chesty coughs, and skullcap, a soothing sedative for over-active and anxious minds.


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