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- This grows throughout the Cowbar grassland and was one of the earliest plants to come through on the bund in 2022 as it often forms large patches on trampled, disturbed ground.
- It also grows on sandy shores and turf, and on waste land. It is a spreading plant with silvery green, feather leaves.
- Its older name is Wild Tansy and it can be mistaken for a buttercup – it has five yellow, saucer shaped petals. The plant’s runners are red.
- Other names are Traveller’s Joy and Traveller’s Rest. It is said that Roman soldiers picked silverweed to pad their shoes with on long marches.
- Its Latin name is Potentilla anserina – potentilla means ‘little powerful one’. The plant has astringent, anticatarrhal, anti-inflammatory and diuretic properties.
- Medicinal uses for dried leaves include gargling or mouthwash for sore throats, gum infections or mouth ulcers, or to be taken internally or applied as a compress for haemorrhoids, stomach-ache or heartburn.
- In times of famine the roots were eaten or traded for meal or corn. They can be baked, boiled, roasted dried and ground into a rough flower for bread or porridge. Apparently, they taste a bit like parsnips.
- One of its Gaelic names is ‘an seachdamh aran’ meaning one of the seven breads of the Gael because it was so important in the diet of people in Scotland before potatoes became common, in the mid-eighteenth century.
- Silverweed is actually a member of the rose family and provides nectar for bees – especially the Honeybee.
- Silverweed is a perennial plant which flowers from May to August.
