From the Hedgewitch's Journal: Eryngo, The Sea Holly

 

 

Eryngo: The Sea Holly of the Medieval Herbalist

"Some herbs hide among the hedgerows. Others cling to the edge of the sea, shaped by wind, salt, and stone. Eryngo was one of those plants."

With its silvery-green leaves, prickly appearance, and strange blue-green flowers, eryngo looks almost otherworldly.

Also known as sea holly, Eryngium maritimum grows along sandy European coasts, where few plants can survive. Its roots were valued in traditional herbal medicine, while its unusual appearance helped give it a reputation as a plant of strength and protection.

Medieval herbalists knew eryngo as a useful medicinal plant, particularly the root. It was considered a diuretic, meaning it was used to encourage urination, and was traditionally employed for complaints involving the urinary system. Preparations of the root were also used for digestive and respiratory complaints.

But eryngo had another reputation that seems almost tailor-made for a hedgewitch's basket.

The Plant of the Seashore

Imagine gathering herbs along a medieval coastline.

Behind you, the village.

Before you, the gray sea.

At your feet, eryngo growing stubbornly in the sand.

Its roots anchored deep into the earth while its leaves and flowers endured salt spray and relentless wind. To a medieval healer, such a plant could easily become a symbol of endurance.

The old herbal tradition often interpreted a plant's appearance and nature as clues to its properties. A plant that survived where others could not was a plant worth knowing.

The Eryngo Root

The root was the most valued medicinal part.

Traditional preparations used eryngo for urinary complaints and to encourage the flow of urine. It also appeared in older herbal traditions for coughs and other respiratory troubles.

Eryngo was sometimes included in compound preparations rather than used alone. Medieval medicine relied heavily upon combinations of herbs, with the healer selecting plants according to the patient's symptoms and the medical theories of the time.

Today, eryngo has largely disappeared from everyday herbal medicine, although the plant remains part of traditional European herbal lore.

As with many historical medicinal plants, traditional use should not be confused with modern medical evidence. Eryngo is best appreciated today as a fascinating part of herbal history rather than as a DIY treatment.

A Plant with Magic in Its Appearance

There is something wonderfully witchy about sea holly.

The silver leaves.

The thorny edges.

The blue flowers.

The lonely places where it grows.

It looks like something that might have been gathered by a woman walking the shoreline at dawn, her basket tucked beneath one arm and the sea mist curling around her skirts.

Perhaps that is why plants like eryngo fascinate me.

They remind us that the medieval herbalist did not see the landscape as empty space.

Every plant had a name.

Every root had a purpose.

Every shoreline offered something worth gathering.

From the Pages of The Midsummer Women

When I imagine the herbal gardens and hedgerows of The Midsummer Women, I think about plants that most people today would walk straight past.

Eryngo is one of them.

It isn't glamorous.

It isn't familiar.

It doesn't have the romantic reputation of the rose or the mystery of the elder tree.

But it survived.

And someone noticed.

Someone learned its name.

Someone dug its root and recorded what it could do.

That is the magic I love most—the magic of forgotten knowledge.

Not necessarily spells or enchantments, but the extraordinary human instinct to look closely at the natural world and ask:

What can this plant teach me?

Until Next Time

"The oldest medicine cabinet was never a cabinet at all. It was the earth beneath our feet."

And sometimes, if we look carefully enough, the forgotten herbs are still growing there.