Thursday, March 18, 2010

Yellow Archangel - Galeobdalon luteum


Well to the naming of things, Grigson says of the yellow archangel 'that it is one of the prettiest woodland flowers' so why is it called Weasel's nose, weasel - snout?(which means weasel-stench)
In Somerset we have bee-nettle, dumb-nettle, snuff candle; Wiltshire - stingy-wingies. Notts; dead-nettle, deaf and dumb.....
Grigson muses on the name archangel, why so, as a dead-nettle it does'nt sting is one answer. The above photo shows a dead horse-tail frond, which gives it an instant location in my mind. Up on the Lansdown, down a little track to a small copse of trees, if you were to take a very small overgrown path to the left, there is a great patch of horse - tail (supposedly bought to this country by the Romans), and it is here that the deer can occasionally be found.


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