Oh flowers of Scotland: Our native plants and their rich folklore
Scotland’s rich flora and the lore surrounding its plants is explored in Gregory Kenicer’s new book. In this extract, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh botanist celebrates the yellow flag iris among others
Part of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s work on understanding and conserving botanical diversity is about understanding human relationships with plants. Understanding how plants were used in the past can help us understand how to use them sustainably for the future, and unlock their potential as new medicines, better and innovative foods, and much more. In Scottish Plant Lore: An Illustrated Flora, the RBGE’S Gregory Kenicer explores that relationship and gives fascinating insights into the past including the use of heather for a traditional beer, cloudberries for jam (now only available as an import from Sweden to Ikea stores!), bracken used as manure for potatoes, the roots of brambles used in the treatment of bronchitis and asthma (never try out the traditional uses at home – many were proven to be poisonous over the years).
This edited extract explores our enduring relationship with plants and its origins.
Human life depends on the green kingdom. At the most basic level, we would be unable to survive without the carbohydrate and oxygen that plants provide through photosynthesis. As building material, fuel, food and medicine, plants were an essential resource for our earliest hunter-gatherer ancestors. Even in the modern age, and despite great advances in technology, almost all human communities continue to rely on plants for their existence. Plants also enrich our lives. Whether growing in habitats created by human activity or in their natural habitats, they never cease to delight and surprise us with their beauty and diversity.
The yellow flag Iris
This perennial herb grows to slightly over 1m tall. The leaves arise from a thickened underground stem, the rhizome, which reaches about 5cm in diameter and branches to form dense beds. The leaves are strap-like, long, and taper to a point, with parallel veins. The large (10cm across) threespoked yellow flower is very distinctive as an iris flower. This is the only iris truly native to Scotland.
When used in thatching, yellow flag is particularly suited as a layer underneath marram, because it provides an even, flat base. The leaves were also used in basketry, but only rarely, and in modern times are used mostly for ornamental and specialist display baskets.
As with other wetland plants, yellow flag was most commonly listed as a source of black inks and dye from Arran and some of the Western Isles. Other writers mention dark-green dyes, blue from the rhizome (perhaps with copperas and an acid), greenbrown, and pale yellow. Although this wide range of dyes has been suggested as the reason for its Gaelic name, Seileasdair (rainbow), it is more likely just a direct relation to the wider European idea of ‘iris’ meaning rainbow (Iris is the name of the goddess of the rainbow in Greek mythology).
Lightfoot describes a wonderful medicinal use from Mull, in which iris ‘root’ was pulverised with daisies, and a teaspoon of the resulting juice was poured into a patient’s nose to treat toothache and nasal problems. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a possible side effect was catching a cold after the treatment.
On a more pleasant note, ‘cheeper’, a Scots name for iris, comes from the squeaking whistle that can be made using the leaf as a reed between the thumbs.
Until around 12,000 years ago, Scotland was in the grip of the most recent ice age. As glaciers receded, tundra vegetation took hold, consisting mainly of low shrubs such as dwarf birch, scrub plants in the heather family, and several species of arctic-alpine willows that are now restricted to high mountains. Over the subsequent millennia, the land was colonised by further plants, their seeds or spores carried long distances by wind, water or animals, or more slowly and by small increments.
Changes in climate and in communities of plants established the diverse range of habitats we see today. Woodlands and forests covered about 80 per cent of the land by around 6,000 years ago. They came to be dominated by Scots pine in the north and west, with oak and hazel woodland through the west and more mixed woodland in the south and east.
Species that colonised the landscape naturally are described as native or indigenous. In contrast, non-native or introduced species are those that have been brought into a region as a result of human activity. This may have been done intentionally, when plants were brought in for use as crops or garden ornamentals, or unintentionally, as in the case of weeds.
Scotland’s traditional uses of plants relate to native species and arose within the communities of ancient Scottish peoples. However, they also reflect strong influences from the wider British Isles and northern and Mediterranean Europe.
New species, and ideas on how to use them, were brought to Scotland by settlers or visitors and adopted.
Human activities, including the introduction of some non-native species, have disrupted the natural equilibrium of native habitats in Scotland to the extent that very little truly original wild land remains. Efforts to conserve and understand these habitats are essential, especially in the context of global environmental change. However, changes to Scotland’s flora and habitats also offer interesting new possibilities for individual plant species and plant communities. For
As with other wetland plants, yellow flag was most commonly listed as a source of black inks and dye from Arran and some of the Western Isles
example, non-native species in the countryside and urban areas, cut off from their wild ancestors, may evolve to meet the challenges of their new habitats, thereby creating new gene pools and ultimately perhaps new species.
Scotland’s first-known settlers were a nomadic or seminomadic Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) society. They were able to make sophisticated stone tools, which they used to hew boats from a single log. These dugouts were probably used to travel around the coasts and up rivers in search of resources; as hunter-gatherers, Mesolithic peoples relied on what food they could obtain from foraging. Archaeological finds suggest that game and shellfish such as mussels and limpets were key components of their diet. Hazelnuts were another important food source, and deposits of the charred remains of these nuts have been found at coastal and island sites.
In the Mesolithic, the coastal areas of Scotland offered many edible and useful plants, from seaweeds to flowering plants. Much of the inland area was covered by the Great Caledonian Forest. Travel through this wild wood filled with bears, boars and wolves would have been difficult. However, the people of the time were able to use the forest as a source of useful plants, building materials and fuel as well as a hunting ground for game.
The start of the Neolithic is defined by the introduction of agriculture. Once agriculture had taken hold, by around 4,000 BCE, a wide range of introduced crops were being grown, including emmer and bread wheats and barley.
The 3,000 years from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages saw the arrival of a great many people and the plants and ideas they brought with them. Social structures underwent radical changes as people formed settled communities.
By the Middle Ages, the people of Scotland were learning about the customs of those living beyond Europe, as trade routes expanded to include the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Classical and early Irish literature give an impression of what life was like in Scotland over these millennia, providing many clues as to how both native and non-native plants were used at that time. The arrival of Christianity in the early Middle Ages marked the appearance of the first formal herbals. The ideas in these books, and the plants mentioned in them, travelled with monastic scholars and healers and were adapted by local specialists.