Welcome to the Woodland Bard School.
Our subscription is now nearly reaching 4,000 members and our objectives are always to provide good quality, useful and supportive material on the natural world and the sacred traditions of the land. You will now receive regular detailed articles on the ecology and lore of native British trees and plants as well as updates on our events and courses. My intention is for these emails to provide information that will support you when you have an opportunity (hopefully as often as you can manage) to unplug from all devices -this is essential for nature connection.
Next Woodland Bard Live Sunday 21st April @ 6pm
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Join us LIVE to experience deep meditation, inspiring prose and gentle Shamanic drumming that will take you into the heart of the Hawthorn grove.
Nature Notes - Spring has arrived
Despite the grey skies and heavy rain the hedgerows are lifting the spirits as the white, silver and gold hues adorn the green ways where I live. The deceptively delicate white is the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) blossom which I have found to flower around two weeks after the first cherry plum ( Prunus cerasifera) blossom in my area.
The gold is the male catkin and the silver the female catkin which both grow on the the goat willow (Salix caprea) tree known as pussy willow. There is something deeply satisfying about the tree blossom still reflecting the unfolding seasons from cherry plum to blackthorn to pussy willow.
Delicious Wild Food - Spring Stir Fry
The stir fry above is packed with vitamins and minerals and absolutely free- chopped nettle, wild garlic, celandine rootlets with a topping of primrose flowers. Never harvest unless you know the plant 100%.
A Focus on Cleavers a wild spring salad
Common Name: Cleavers Latin : Galium aparine Family: Rubiaceae
History and/or use: Good spring tonic and nutritious vegetable boiled or eaten raw when very young.
Wildlife Value: Food plant for insects.
An abundant straggling plant clambering through the undergrowth and climbing through the hedgerows. Its seeds cling to animal fur to aid distribution. Its luxuriant keen growth in spring brings a cleansing, moving refreshing energy of determination and direction. The family it belongs to are known as the bedstraws for their lush green foliage traditionally provided bedding. The bedstraws have four-angled stems and their leaves are arranged in whorls.
Goose Grass or Cleavers is a common plant that can be eaten as a green vegetable. Its seeds can be roasted to make a hot beverage. Medicinally the plant is an astringent and diuretic. It is used to help heal inward and outward wounds as well as being used to cleanse them. Internally it is used to treat psoriasis and eczema and support the lymphatic system. The plant is best used fresh as it loses its medicinal qualities in the drying process. Please note the plant can be a skin irritant.
If you have any medical conditions please check with a medical herbalist first before taking any plant and only harvest it if you are 100% sure what it is!
The plant clings or cleaves to fur/materials to aid its distribution, giving it the name of cleavers. Shepherds have used it to strain hair out of sheep’s milk, and it has been fed to goslings, giving rise to the name Goose Grass.
There are many related species including hedge, heath and lady’s bedstraw which are all part of the bedstraw family ( Rubiaceae) so called as they are plants traditionally used for bedding.
Hawthorn - a guardian of the Earth
As you walk out onto a windswept landscape taking in the spectacular views, breath-taking scenery and the beautiful array of colourful flowers you may come across a lone Hawthorn tree full of blossom, windswept and covered in lichen. The same tree in winter may be filled with red berries and delightful birds feeding upon them, its whitish grey bark standing out amongst the green undulating hills. Hidden amongst the blossom or red berries are long pointed thorns which the forager may miss and just like the stories be pricked by them.
John Keats reflects on the innocence of trees:
‘Trees old and young sprouting a shady boon for simple sheep.’
Chaucer expounds on its beauty:
‘Among the many buds proclaiming May,
Decking the fields in holiday array,
Striving who shall surpass in bravery,
Mark the fair blooming of the Hawthorn tree
Who finely clothed in a robe of white,
Fills full the wanton eye with may’s delight.’
The naturalist may admire it as a valuable habitat supporting insects, birds and mammals with flower, fruit and shelter. The Bard may well acknowledge as Kipling once did its role as a witness through the ages:
‘Oak of the clay lived many a day if ever Aeneas was born,
Ash of the loam was a lady at home when Brut was an outlaw man,
Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town before London was born,
Witness hereby the ancestry of Oak and Ash and Thorn.’
It is easy to see why magic surrounds this tree which has been with us across time as it merges innocence with harshness out on the Downs or Moors.
A pricked finger serves as a warning, its blossom and berries help induce sleep whilst many a songbird takes you into another realm with the beauty of its song whilst perching on its branches.
In Ireland it is recognised as the Faerie tree harbouring the elementals and it is not hard to see why this is so. Stories abound of what may happen to you if you were to harm the tree.
A lone tree in an otherwise flat landscape is surely home to the elementals as its role is paramount in creating further biodiversity out on the landscape. When names and relationships are given to landscape features, we create an intimacy with them and thus wish to protect them. Therefore, a warning about destroying special trees in the landscape is perfectly justified for they are of such value.
You may not be struck by lightning or whisked aware to faerie lands when you destroy these precious trees but the impact you make on the landscape has far-reaching effects on the physical landscape and therefore the psyche of the inner landscape- the soul.
When country folk or indigenous people speak of Faerie land or elementals we are entering into more subtle unexplained realms.
When we see the increase in chronic problems and mental health issues who is to say how the destruction of nature has not only affected our planet but also our own inner health. These effects long understood in the metaphor of story are only just starting to be understood in the scientific world.
Ecology of Hawthorn.
Crataegus monogyna (common hawthorn) Crataegus laevigata (midland hawthorn)
Droiheann (old English) Hagaporn ( Anglo-Saxon) Huath (ogham)
There are two types of Hawthorn known in this country. The first is common and widespread, the second (known as Midland or simply woodland Hawthorn) is restricted to the South and East and is an ancient woodland indicator, an uncommon sight. The latter has a bushy habit and shallowly lobed leaves, able to flower in the shade. This distinction was first made in France in 1790.
Hawthorn, especially since the 1500s, has been an important underwood species grown for fuel and its bark used for ink. Before barbed wire hawthorn was our main fencing, and early forestry writers recommend hawthorn as a nurse tree when sowing a new plantation.
However the tree can colonise chalk downland too effectively becoming a permanent habitat thus threatening the delicate balance of our downs. This is known as being ‘bushed over’.
The hawthorn is generally welcome, tolerating shade and grazing effectively (although new growth takes three weeks for the thorns to harden up and protect the plant from mammals like deer). The tree supports many insects, birds and mammals providing cover, nectar and fruit.
Uses of Hawthorn
Hawthorn wood is hard wearing ideal for knife/dagger handles making them lucky. Its root wood is also used to make beautiful small boxes and combs. It is also good firewood.
As a herb its berries, leaves and flowers are great for heart problems, especially high blood pressure, insomnia and helping one relax.
I hope you have enjoyed this article, your subscription supports the work of Walk with Trees and enables me to continue to write these articles, thank you.
Thank you for mentioning the overlooked plant, Cleavers. The bedstraw family are very special. I have managed to keep Woodruff in the garden - which likes to grow with the Cleavers - and I have to remind the gardener whjch is which everytime.
Thank you for a really interesting read! It reminds of the importance of hawthorn in our Slavic traditions where it is valued for its healing properties. I remember drinking lots of hawthorn tea as a teen because it was considered medicinal. Also in the Balkans it is the only plant that can put a vampire to rest, the recipe is to put a hawthorn stake through his heart! (and eat lots of garlic, of course :)