HERB - Re: herbalist V1 #473

Gaylin iasmin at home.com
Sat Jun 17 04:06:50 PDT 2000


Jadwiga asked:

>Jasmin, do you have anything on period uses of Sweet Annie? I bought what
>turned out to be a six-pack of it by mistake (I had it confused with
>Southernwood in my herb-buying frenzy) and I'm living in fear and
>trepidation since I found out it gets 6 feet tall...
 
Actually, it can get between  5-10 feet tall, to be honest. The
sources I've found mundanely say that it's an excellent hedge
replacement. Not that I wanted to scare you with that information,
of course.

Anyway, so far the majority of the period information I've found has
been from Chinese literature, and only secondary references at
best (tertiary at worst, but such is the nature of the Web, often).
Those writings are actually pre-period, to be honest, written in
the BC era and also the very early AD era. Perhaps someone else
on the list has found more than I for western Europe?

The historical information that I've found has been few and far
between. Most of the information in general that I've found has
been on the usefulness of the plant in malarial treatments. This
ties in nicely with the little period (Chinese) info that talks
about fever and parasite treatment.

Now there are Artemisias that are period in western Europe that
I've been able to find. But, them, the Artemisia's are a *huge*
family, encompassing a wide range of plants. Tarragon is the first
one that comes to mind (Artemisia dracunculus) and Wormwood
(Artemisia absinthium) being another.

Wish I could be of more help from an SCA perspective, but I do have
an idea...there are plenty of places online that suggest you grow the
plant and use the above-ground parts as the main structure for an
herbal wreath. Perhaps you can use your abundance for that?

Best of luck,

Jasmine
Iasmin de Cordoba
iasmin at home.com
gwalli at ptc.com

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