...Medicine and Folklore... A cowpat or the keys of heaven?
medicinal uses. A tea made from the flowers was used as a treatment for insomnia and to calm the nerves, and such preparations are still available today. The roots were also regarded as a valuable addition to the home herbal armoury and in various concoctions were used to alleviate the symptoms of bronchitis and whooping cough and also to give relief from arthritis. Nowadays the cowslip is not the common plant it used to be. This may be to some extent because it was over-harvested in the past – pound and pounds of blooms were needed to make wine – but its decline also reflects the changes in farming practice in which rough pasture plays little part. In some areas the cowslip is a protected and endangered species and although still a fairly common sight in the Four Shires it should never be picked or dug up from the wild. Plants and seeds are readily available from plant nurseries and garden centres. If you do grow your own you can use a scattering of cowslip flower heads and a few young leaves as an unusual and colourful addition to your favourite spring salad, but beware! A small percentage of people have an allergy to cowslip and primrose plants and develop a skin rash on contact, so it’s best to be careful if you offer this dish to guests. So is this delightful flower ‘cowpat’ or
he French call them St Peter’s Keys, we call them cowslips. A European legend has it that St Peter, the ‘Guardian of the Gates of Heaven’ dropped his keys and at the spot where they fell to earth shoots sprang up, and from them the cheerful yellow flowers that we commonly know as cowslips appeared. There was a fanciful notion that the group of elongated flower heads atop a tall stalk resembled a bunch of keys.
T
The old English name is less romantic. Cowslips can be found in open woodland
16 March 2011
and on verges but they grow best on rough grassland and lowland meadows. ‘Cowslip’ is a corruption of ‘cu-sloppe’ from the idea that the plant grew where cowpats had been dropped. Cowslip flowers were traditionally used as a basis for one of the most popular home-made wines. Children would be sent out into the meadows of the Four Shires to collect the blossoms, and even as late as the 18th century it was being sold in the markets for wine-making. In the past the plant had a variety of
‘keys of heaven’? Perhaps it’s best to revert to the Latin name: Primula veris. This derives from ‘primus’ meaning ‘first’ and ‘ver’, Latin for spring. All the members of the primula family are a welcome sight after the drabness of winter, but the jaunty cowslip with its cluster of faintly scented flower heads that dance in the breeze, has its own special place as a herald of brighter times to come.
with Maggie Chaplin
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