Thursday 7 March 2013

Red Admiral Butterflies



Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (in Public Domain)

The Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) is a very well known butterfly that is often seen in gardens and parks in the UK, especially in autumn when it is one of the last flying insects to be seen before the winter begins.
It has very conspicuous red and black wings and white spots on the wing-tips. The underside of the wings is mainly mottled and provides camouflage when the wings are folded.
The Red Admiral is a migrant butterfly that arrives in the UK and northern Europe each year and is believed to hibernate in small numbers in Britain too. In late summer and autumn it can often be found feeding on rotting fruit such as apples, pears and plums that have fallen to the ground in gardens and orchards. Red Admiral adults can often be seen feeding on Buddleia or the Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) in late summer. With its spectacular colouration the Red Admiral is one of the most popular and commonly sighted British butterflies.
The caterpillar of the Red Admiral is mostly found on Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) but sometimes will also be discovered eating other plants in the Urticacae including Pellitory of the Wall (Parietaria officinalis) and the Small Nettle (U. urens), as well as Hops (Humulus lupulus) in the Cannabaceae. The Stinging Nettle is a familiar sight and often forms large patches alongside fields, on river and railway banks, and on waste ground and Pellitory of the Wall grows, as its name suggests, in the walls of old and ruined buildings.
The male Red Admiral butterflies tend to be smaller than the females but otherwise look identical. Females can be seen flying over food-plants and stopping to lay eggs but otherwise they are mainly encountered feeding on flowers or fruit or simply basking or flying in the sunshine.


Canary Red Admiral (Vanessa vulcania)

In Tenerife and the Canary Islands there is a very similar species of Red Admiral though it is smaller and has slightly different wing patterns. The red bands have black markings breaking them up. The Canary Red Admiral (V. vulcania) tends to be mainly seen in spring and lives in the cooler areas of the islands where there is more vegetation. 

Canary Red Admiral resting

This species is also found living in Madeira. It used to be referred to as Vulcania indica the Indian Red Admiral but has been declared as a separate species to this butterfly. Like the Red Admiral its caterpillars feed on nettles and plants in the Urticaceae.
Both species of Red Admiral butterfly are very pretty creatures from the Nymphalidae family and not easily mistaken for any other species. 

Copyright © 2013 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.


Tuesday 26 February 2013

Wall Pennywort is a delicious edible plant


Wall Pennywort

Wall Pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris) is an interesting edible wild plant that you are not likely to mistake for anything else. It grows, as its name suggests in old stone walls, and also in crevices in rocks, and has round leaves hence its name.
The Wall Pennywort is also known as Navelwort because its leaves have a small indentation in the middle that could be likened to a navel in a human stomach. The leaves grow in rosettes. An alternative name for the plant is Penny-pies.
Wall Pennywort is found in the UK and parts of southern and western Europe as well as in the Canary Islands. It has spikes of greenish-pink flowers on stems that may be a reddish shade and it flowers in spring and as late as May and early summer depending on location. These flower-spikes can reach some 10in in height and the small flowers are bell-shaped.  It is a member of the Crassulaceae or Stonecrop family and is adapted for surviving in dry conditions. The leaves and plant are succulent and fleshy.


Wall Pennywort in flower

The leaves can be eaten as a salad and have been compared with a crisp lettuce in flavour. They are best when found growing in moist conditions or after rain when they are really juicy. Wall Pennywort tends to turn a reddish colour in very dry conditions and will lose it succulent fleshiness. Take care when gathering the leaves because Wall Pennywort is very shallow-rooted and the whole plant can easily be pulled out of the small amount of soil it is growing in.
Wall Pennywort has been used in homeopathic medicine and is known as Cotyledon umbilicus to practitioners. The plant is thought to be the “Kidneywort”, described by Nicholas Culpeper in the English Physician. The famous herbalist said of the Wall Pennywort: : "the juice or the distilled water being drank, is very effectual for all inflammations and unnatural heats, to cool a fainting hot stomach, a hot liver, or the bowels: the herb, juice, or distilled water thereof, outwardly applied, heals pimples, St. Anthony's fire, and other outward heats. The said juice or water helps to heal sore kidneys, torn or fretted by the stone, or exulcerated within; it also provokes urine, is available for the dropsy, and helps to break the stone. Being used as a bath, or made into an ointment, it cools the painful piles or hæmorrhoidal veins. It is no less effectual to give ease to the pains of the gout, the sciatica, and helps the kernels or knots in the neck or throat, called the king's evil: healing kibes and chilblains if they be bathed with the juice, or anointed with ointment made thereof, and some of the skin of the leaf upon them: it is also used in green wounds to stay the blood, and to heal them quickly."
Wall Pennywort is a plant that is easily recognised and is worth adding to the plants you are foraging for. It really is an enjoyable edible wild plant to be eaten as a salad vegetable or to add to sandwiches.

Thursday 21 February 2013

Rare Canary Islands Bencomia shrub grows to the size of trees in Cuevas Negras



Bencomia caudata Photo by David Parkes

Many years ago the Findhorn village in Scotland made the news because of the gigantic plants and vegetables that grew there, and this was believed to have happened due to the magical assistance of nature spirits. Findhorn was soon to become a thriving New Age community and still is to this day. Now a rare shrub known as Bencomia caudata has been found growing to the size of small trees here in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
According to author and botanist David Bramwell in his book Wild Flowers of the CanaryIslands, this particular species of Bencomia only reaches 2 m in height and he describes it as a “small shrub.” However, whilst out walking with friends I discovered a number of specimens of this rare plant that had developed into small trees and reached 4 m or more. Some of these had proper branches and trunks as well. They are of the beaten track and hidden away in the garden of an abandoned house in the Cuevas Negras area above Los Silos.


Bencomia caudata tree. Photo by David Parkes

I contacted Bramwell and he has confirmed that the small trees are B. caudata but a lot bigger than usual. It is thought that the fertile soil where they are growing has caused their fantastic increase in size. The Cuevas Negras ravine they are in is sheltered and receives plenty of water. Most of the vegetation growing there is very tall, green and luxuriant. There are very high plants of some sort of Cabbage in the garden as well and my friend Holly van Heffernan was photographed by one of these to show just how tall they are.


Holly van Heffernan with a Cuevas Negras cabbage. Photo by Steve Andrews


The Bencomia genus of shrubs is actually in the Rosacae or Rose family but only an experienced botanist would be likely to realise this because the shrubs do not look anything like the popular flower we all know so well. They are evergreens and have attractive pinnate leaves. The flowers are carried in inflorescences that later on turn into tightly packed globular fruits. The flowers are either male or female and the plants are dioecious.


Palo de Sangre the Stick of Blood. Photo by Steve Andrews 

The leaf-form of the Bencomia species bears a resemblance to those of the Stick of Blood or “Palo de Sangre” (Marcetella moquiniana) that is another uncommon shrub found in Tenerife. It gets its name from having the upper parts of its stems covered in bright red hairs. This shrub is in the Rose family too. It grows on cliffs, slopes and in ravines in the wild but is frequently cultivated in parks and gardens for its ornamental value.
There are another three species of Bencomia that are endemics of the Canary Islands.  B.exstipulata grows in various locations in the highlands of Mt Teide, B. sphaerocarpa is surving in small populations on the forest cliffs of El Hierro, and B. brachystachya is a shrub that is only found in Gran Canaria. All of the Bencomias are very rare plants and protected species.

Copyright © 2013 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.


Friday 16 November 2012

Summer Foraging in the countryside


Fennel flower


Gathering herbs in summer
Summer is the hottest time of the year and has plenty of sunlight, but when it comes to foraging for wild foods it is the season in between spring and autumn, which means that the spring greens are past their prime and the fruits and nuts harvested in autumn are still not ready.
However, summer is a great season for gathering in the herbs that grow wild and drying them to preserve them for future use and some like St John's Wort are traditionally harvested at this time.

St John's Wort

St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is commonly found growing in grassy places, woodland clearings and edges, roadsides, waste ground and railway banks and is in full bloom and full potency at midsummer when it can be collected on St John's Day, June 24. It is easily recognised by its golden yellow flowers starry 5-petaled flowers with conspicuous stamens and the flowering tops are the part of the plant that contains most of its active ingredient hypericin.

St John's Wort

St John's Wort has become widely known and used as Mother Nature's answer to Prozac and is on sale as a herbal tea or in other forms as a supplement from health stores and distributors of such products. It is also a remedy for anxiety and nervous tension, as well as having antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties.
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is a plant that may well also be found in places where St John's Wort grows and especially in fields and meadows but also on railway banks and waste ground. The Native Americans recognised its medicinal properties after it had been introduced to the continent and used it against cancerous tumours and skin diseases, as well as taking it during pregnancy and childbirth and as a general tonic and herb of purification.
The flowers are the parts that get used as an infusion and these can be collected and dried. Red Clover was once used to treat bronchial complaints and is also thought to be good for balancing blood sugar levels.

Common name: Wild Marjoram - Scientific name: Origanum vulgare
Photo by Leo Michels. Usage: Public Domain

Two aromatic summer herbs that can be used in cooking as well as for medicinal purposes are Wild Thyme (Thymus drucei) and the Marjoram(Origanum vulgare), both of which favour grassy places on limestone or a chalky soil.
Wild Thyme is a tiny little plant that you will have to get down on your hands and knees to gather and it grows in clumps among short grassland and on downs and heaths. It produces reddish-purple flower heads and is easier to find and pick when in bloom, which occurs between June and August.
The flavour and fragrant aroma of Wild Thyme is much milder than the garden variety but it is just as useful for flavouring savoury dishes. Richard Mabey awards it with an A category in his classic book http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hubpages-vig-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B003GUBIBQFood for Free.
Marjoram is a much bigger plant and when in flower it is easy to spot clumps of it, especially as it usually has bees and other insects in attendance eagerly gathering the nectar from its pinkish purple flowers. This is a very aromatic and spicy herb that is excellent for adding flavour to food.
In Mediterranean cookery Marjoram has been much valued and made use of, although in the UK it has often been neglected for some reason, even though one of its local names is Joy of the Mountain. It is also known as Oregano.
Marjoram is prepared by collecting some flowering sprigs of the herb, hanging them to dry and then stripping the leaves and flowers from the stalks. Crushed up in this dry form it can be stored in airtight jars for future use.
Marjoram taken as an infusion is good for anxiety, insomnia, colds and chest complaints, indigestion and tension headaches. It has antiseptic properties too.
Another common summer herb is Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and although it grows inland on waste ground and cultivated in gardens it really thrives on cliffs and other places by the sea. It can reach as much as 5 ft in height and is easy to recognise with its graceful appearance, feathery leaves and umbels of mustard-yellow flowers, which appear from June to October.
If you crush any part of the Fennel plant you will notice a strong smell of aniseed and its flavour is similar too. The seeds are collected later on in the autumn and are wonderful for adding to curries, stir-fries and other dishes as well as making Fennel herb tea but the leaves and stalks are gathered in early summer and hung up to dry.
Finely chopped Fennel leaves are good in salads, with parsnips, and even in apple pie and the herb is good with oily fish as well. The whole plant is edible and it really is one of the most useful wild herbs that can easily be found.
In fact, Fennel is such a versatile plant that Pliny listed it as being a remedy for no less than 22 complaints and it was one of the Anglo-Saxon herbalists' nine most sacred herbs. Fennel tea is good for the digestion and it can be used as a gargle for a sore throat and a mouthwash.
Fennel Tea
250ml/ ½ pint/ 1 cup of boiling water 1 teaspoonful of http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hubpages-vig-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B001VNECT0Fennel seed ½ thin slice of fresh orange or some grated rind
Crush the Fennel seeds slightly and place in a teapot and pour the boiling water over them. Cover and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.
Add the orange slice or rind for extra flavour, and then strain before serving.
Olives with Wild Marjoram
1 lb of pricked olives in a jar 1 cup of olive oil 1 teaspoon of Thyme 1 teaspoon of crushed peppercorns 3 teaspoons of chopped Wild Marjoram
Add the herbs and spices and olive oil to the olives in the jar, close it, shake well and store in a refrigerator for at least 2 days.
Serve the olives with red wine and cheese.

Common Mallow

The Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris) is often found growing in the same locations as Fennel and is another very useful herb that flowers from June through until October. Typically encountered on roadsides, on banks and on waste ground the Common Mallow stands out with its showy pink five-petalled flowers that are produced on stems that can be as much as 3 ft in height.
The leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible as well as having medicinal properties. The plant contains a lot of mucilage, which taken internally as an infusion reduces inflammation and is a treatment for coughs sore throats and bronchitis.
Young leaves and shoots of the Common Mallow contain vitamins A, B1, B2 and C and can be eaten raw in salads or cooked as greens. Unripe fruits can also be added to salads and the seeds are known as "cheeses," due to their shape rather than the mildly nutty flavour.
The Romans cultivated the Common Mallow as a culinary and medicinal herb and by the 16th century it had gained a reputation as a cure-all. In sufficient quantity it has a laxative action and so can help purge the body of toxins and disease.

Meadowsweet

One more easily found and wonderful summer herb is the Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), which grows in damp places such as river and streamsides and by ponds, and flowers from June until October with frothy creamy-white flower heads. Meadowsweet has inspired poets Ben Jonson and John Clare, and the latter included it in his poem To Summer.
The flowers and leaves when dried smell of newly mown hay and can be added to pot-pourri or used to make a herbal tea. It can be used to flavour soups and stews but has medicinal properties too and is traditionally taken as an infusion for heartburn and gastric ulcers.

Lime Tree

Besides all the herbs described above that can be looked for in the countryside, there is another, which grows much closer to home and is definitely worth knowing about and that is the Lime Tree (Tilia x europaea), which can be found in many parks, gardens and along city streets. In June and July the delightful honeyed fragrance of this common tree perfumes the air and when they are in bloom is the time to harvest its flowers.
Made into a herbal tea, known as "Tilleul" in France where it has proved a very popular beverage, Lime-blossom besides tasting good is good for anxiety and insomnia because it has mild tranquillising properties as well as for treating high blood pressure. Dry the entire flower head along with its winged bract and make the tea without milk.
In early summer, before the Lime leaves get too old and tough, they can be eaten in sandwiches but make sure to wash them first and collect them from out of the way of roads and traffic fumes.
Summer is an ideal time for enjoying the countryside and rambling due to the longer hours of daylight and the warm and sunny weather. The fragrance and the many uses of the herbs found growing at this time of year are surely another of the many pleasures of the season.
Footnote: This article was originally published in Permaculture Magazine, number 48, summer 2006.
Copyright © 2010 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Saturday 6 October 2012

Royce Holleman talks to Steve Andrews about Herbs Of The Northern Shaman




In this video, Royce Holleman talks to myself, Steve Andrews, aka The Bard of Ely, and interviews me about my book Herbs of the Northern Shaman for his Paranormal Palace Radio show.
Besides discussing the mind-altering plants described in this 2010 O-Books/Moon Books publication we also talk about edible plants, foraging, raw food, St John's Wort as an anti-depressant, flying ointment, the law and legal status of many plants, magic mushrooms, herbs in the Bible, Moses and his use of Calamus, artistic inspiration from hallucinogens, hummadruz, UFO author Jenny Randles, Arthur Shuttlewood and UFOs, Magic Saucer UFO magazine, Warminster, Atlantis, David Icke, ayahuasca, Prof Arysio Santos and Atlantis, the Vedas, tribal ways, Christopher Everard, Rastas, soma, Shiva, ancient religions, religious experience, Essiac cancer cure, Hulda Clarke, absinthe, Fly Agaric, and much more.

Foraging
Edible plants like Dandelion are recommended as ones that can be found around the world and are one of several plants thought of as weeds that grow in lawns but are actually good to eat. Clover and the Daisy are two other edible weeds.

Atlantis
We talk about the late Professor Arysio Nunes dos Santo and his website and theories about Atlantis. I point out that Prof Santos believed that many psychoactive herbs, such as Salvia divinorum, were selectively cultivated and created by the people of Atlantis.  The professor also believed that Atlantis was located where Indonesia and the South China Sea are today.




Hummadruz
I explain about my Amazon Kindle book Hummadruz and a Life of High Strangeness, and how I learned the term Hummadruz from Jenny Randles the UFO author. My book is an autobiographical account of my paranormal and spiritual experiences in the past.  Jenny used to write for Magic Saucer magazine, a publication intended for younger readers and published by Crystal Hogben.  I had a regular column in this too entitled Eco-space. 

Warminster and UFOs
The late Arthur Shuttlewood, who was the editor of the Warminster Journal and an author of several books about UFOs, was also a writer for this magazine. I talk about how Warminster in Wiltshire was once famous for being a place UFOs were frequently seen.

Calamus
We discuss mind-altering plants mentioned in the Bible and how the prophet Moses was said to have used a “holy anointing ointment” that contained Calamus, a herb that is both a stimulant and a hallucinogen. I talk about how Chris Everard, the film-maker for the Enigma Channel and publisher of Feed Your Brain magazine, claims in his book Stoneage Psychedelia that religious books like this were inspired by ancient people who used hallucinogenic herbs for inspiration and visions. We go on to discuss ‘Soma’ and I point out that this was thought to be the Fly Agaric toadstool.

Essiac
Royce asks me about herbal cures for cancer and I describe the Essiac herbal cancer cure and the very controversial late Dr Hulda Clarke and her treatments which involved the use of Wormwood. I also point out that this potentially dangerous herb was the main ingredient in Absinthe, an alcoholic drink that many great authors, poets and painters drank.
The video interview was intended to be just one hour but because I had so much to say it went on for nearly two.

Monday 10 September 2012

Bladder Campion - a common edible plant


Bladder Campion

An edible wild flower


Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris) is a common wild flower in the Pink and Campion family (Caryophyllaceae). It has attractive white flowers carried in inflated bladders, hence its name, and it is of importance as an edible wild plant that can be gathered by foragers.
Bladder Campion grows in many parts of Europe, in the UK, and is also found throughout North America where it is often considered as a weed.

Bladder Campion described

Bladder Campion grows in grassy places and reaches 1-2 ft in height. It is a perennial plant that can often be found along the sides of pathways, roadsides and at the edges of fields. It is a dainty-looking wild flower when in full bloom.
In the UK it flowers between June and August and produces distinctive flower-heads that are easily identifiable due to the inflated calyxes that form the bladders which the plant gets it name from. After flowering its tiny brown seeds are contain in seed-capsules inside the bladder-coating which shrivels with age.

Bladder Campion in the kitchen

Bladder Campion has been a popular free food in parts of Spain and the leaves of the plant were even collected for sale as "collejas." The collectors were known as "collejeros" and they had to gather a sizeable amount of the greens to make their efforts worthwhile.

The young leaves and tender shoots are good in salads but older leaves are usually cooked by frying or boiling. They can also be added to soups, stews and omelettes.

Cooked chickpeas with Bladder Campion greens. Photo by Xufanc.

"Gazpacho viudo" (Widower gazpacho) is the name of a soup made in the La Mancha region of Spain. This gazpacho is made by stewing the leaves and it is served with flatbread. The reference to widower is because this soup was traditionally only eaten when times were hard and food was scarce.
Bladder Campion leaves and young shoots can be cooked with chickpeas to make a stew known as "potaje de garbanzos y collejas," with scrambled eggs as "huevos revueltos y collejas" and simply cooked and served with rice, or "arroz con collejas" as the dish is known in Spanish.
According to Wikipedia, the plant is popular too in Crete where it is called "Agriopapoula" (Αγριοπάπουλα), and the leaves and shoots are eaten after browning in olive oil.
Richard Mabey gives the Bladder Campion a B category as an edible plant in his forager's Bible Food For Free. This is an excellent book if you want to learn about the wealth of fruits, nuts, wild flowers, herbs and fungi that can be found in the countryside and are safe to use in the kitchen. And there is more useful information on foraging here.
Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.



Saturday 8 September 2012

The Grey Dagger and Dark Dagger moths


Grey Dagger (Acronicta psi) by M. Virtala

The Dark Dagger and Grey Dagger
The Grey Dagger (Acronicta psi) and Dark Dagger (A. tridens) are two British moths that look almost identical as adults but very different as caterpillars. Both moths have curious black dagger markings on their fore-wings, hence their name.
The Grey and Dark Dagger moths are also found throughout Europe, the Near East and many parts of Asia. They are in the Noctuidae, a very large family of moths that are also known as "Noctuids", "Owlets" and "Millers." Many species look very similar and there is often confusion in identifying them.
Strangely the Dark Dagger is often the paler in colour than the Grey Dagger. But the real natural mystery is why the two moths look so alike and yet their larvae are so different?

The Grey Dagger

The Grey Dagger is thought to be the commoner of the two species but this is not certain due to the confusion with identification of the adult insects. The only way of determining which moth is which is by examination of the genitalia by an expert on moths.
The Grey Dagger's fore-wings are a pale to a blackish grey and the dagger-like markings are also thought to resemble the Greek letterpsi ψ and this is how it was given its scientific species name. The hind-wings are a dirty grey but generally not as pale and as white as those of the male of the Dark Dagger. The wingspan is 34-45 mm. The adult moth feeds on nectar.
The Grey Dagger flies in June and overwinters in the pupa stage in a fairly flimsy cocoon that is spun under loose bark. The caterpillars usually feed on Hawthorn but also can eat, Blackthorn, Plum, Pear, Apple, Sallow and Birch. It has also been reported feeding on Pyracantha and is often found in gardens with fruit trees and ornamental shrubs.
It is a pretty creature with a bright yellow line down its back, black-edged red spots along each side and a raised hump on ring four of its body. It is far more colourful than the rather dowdy adult moth although the adult's black dagger markings add to its charm.

Grey Dagger caterpillar in Public Domain

The Dark Dagger

The Dark Dagger moth is found in England and Wales, and though present in Scotland and Ireland is thought to be not at all common in either. It is also distributed throughout Europe from Fennoscandia to the Balkans and down into Italy and Turkey. The species is found as well in Russia and as far over as China, Korea and into Japan.

Dark Dagger by M. Virtala

The Dark Dagger flies in June and July, and in captivity a second brood in October is sometimes produced. The caterpillar of the Dark Dagger feeds from August to October and is found on Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Rowan, Buckthorn, Plum, Pear, Apple, Birch and Sallow.
It does not have such a high hump as the related Grey Dagger's caterpillar, nor does it have a bold yellow line down its back. The larva of the Dark Dagger is black with a broad reddish stripe along it back in the middle and one other on each side. The middle stripe is interrupted with white and has a small black hump on the fourth ring and another broader one on the eleventh. The caterpillar, like that of the Grey Dagger has numerous hairs sprouting from its body as well.

Dark Dagger caterpillar by Lilly M

Like the Grey Dagger it overwinters as a pupa in a silken cocoon that it spins under loose bark. It is reported that it can sometimes spend two winters in this stage.
The Dagger Moths are well worth looking out for although you are more likely to see the colourful caterpillars.
Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.