Violet: The Humble Plant with Deep Roots

Violets (Viola odorata and related species) grow quietly at the edges of things: the corner of the garden, the base of the hedge, the shaded part of the lawn. They are small enough to be overlooked and distinctive enough to be recognized by everyone. Almost nobody...

Tulsi (Holy Basil): The Sacred Adaptogen

Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum, also called Ocimum sanctum and known in English as holy basil) is one of the most unusual plants in herbalism because it occupies two entirely different worlds simultaneously without contradiction. In the Hindu tradition, it is the most...

The Folk Magic of Flowers: May Day Herbs and Traditions

The first of May is the hinge between spring and summer in the European folk calendar, and has been for as long as there are records of folk practice in the British Isles and across Northern and Western Europe. Beltane in the Gaelic tradition, Walpurgis Night in the...

Rose: The Herb of the Heart in Every Tradition

Rosa (various species, most commonly Rosa gallica, Rosa canina, and Rosa damascena in herbal practice) is one of the most universally present herbs in human culture, and its consistent association with the heart, with love, with grief, and with the emotional life is...

Herbs in the Celtic Tradition: An Introduction

When we talk about the Celtic herbal tradition, we are speaking of something that exists more in fragments, traces, and echoes than in the coherent documented systems of the Greek, Arabic, or Chinese traditions. The ancient Celts left no written medical texts. What...