viii: Botanica Fabula
Love Apples and the Devil's Shoestring Amanda Edmiston The silvery, silken strands of the Devil's Shoestring catch the faint hum of breeze that vibrates this dogday of summer. I'm unfamiliar with Goat’s Rue (Galega officinalis), and once we’ve identified the plant, we pick a few. Coupling them with fragrant Mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris), 'the travellers herb', we line our hot-soled shoes with the soft, green plants. Legs aching from the long walk, I had mentioned the lore that the leaves of Goat's Rue, placed in shoes, can ward off the early signs of rheumatism. To be honest, it's all I've got. I've been searching for a story about the plant for weeks now, but it just hasn't settled with me. My companion laughs. She's been delving into the world of folk names— Goat’s Rue, Italian Fitch, Catgut, Devil's Shoestrings —and, as we walk to help with my quest, she suggests we should be mindful of this herb’s reputation as an aphrodisiac. We find ourselves listing all the herbs we pass that have been connected to conjuring the carnal. The scent of Vervain (Verbena officinalis) catches our nostrils as we make our way along the verge, and we ponder whether some of the aphrodisiac herbs have obtained their reputations from the old claims that they may increase breast milk and promote the growth of glandular tissue. A combine harvester rolls past in the adjacent field, and the aromatic
coumarin— the top notes of new mown hay — overwhelm the Vervain, and the conversation quickly deteriorates into a selection of clichéd observations about boobs and rolling in the hay. We fall prey to entirely unmerited fits of the giggles, decide the sun isn't getting any cooler, thunder clouds are looming, and we should head for home. She asks me what I do when I can't find a story about a plant, and I explain how I 'storymend'. It’s an idea that first came to me when I started sharing plant stories. I find folklore or snippets of things that sound as if they're from a story and build up the missing threads, connecting them to facts about a plant. I think of examples, and she asks me to tell her a story... This is story mended from the European folklore surrounding another plant with a reputation as an aphrodisiac, one which, when it was first introduced, was avoided. Being of the Nightshades family, people felt it might be poisonous, and there was a bit of Northern European lore that said witches used the Love Apple (Solanum lycopersicum), the Wolf Peach, or— as we know it —the Tomato, to turn their enemies into werewolves. As we walk, I start to share my story of the Wolf Peach: There was once a girl, a girl who lived alone with her mother in a dark, wild
