July 22, 2011
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Southeastern, New Hampshire
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Matthew Wood has a whole chapter on the healing properties and magical properties
of agrimony in The Book of Herbal Wisdom. I never thought I would find it
within a few miles of my home! I will be getting out there to harvest for tea and
tincture. It was in the damp woods, not far from a creek. There was quite a bit
of Broadleaf Enchanter’s Nightshade (Circaea lutetiana) growing nearby.
At first I thought it was a Cinquefoil. Perhaps Tall Cinquefoil (Potentilla
arguta), but Tall Cinquefoil has white flowers. Or Pennsylvania Cinquefoil
(Potentilla pectinata), but the flowers of Pennsylvania Cinquefoil grow in
a cyme rather than on a spike and the leaflets of Pennsylvania Cinquefoil are much
more deeply dissected. Then I thought it might be Pacific Silverweed (Argentina
egedii), but each flower of Pacific Silverweed grows on a separate stalk.
Flipping through all of the yellow flower pictures in a field guide was what saved
the day.
The leaves are alternate and pinnately-divided with 5-9 large, coarsely-toothed
leaflets with tiny leaflets between. The flowers are deep yellow with five petals
and look like cinquefoil flowers except that the flower petals are not notched at
the tip as with some cinquefoils. The flowers grow on spikes and are not densely
packed as they are with Roadside Agrimony (Agrimonia striata).
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