Poisonous berries on the forest floor

Have you ever seen these berries on the woodland floor in autumn and thought ‘What is this?’?  There is no signs of leaves or any other indication of what plant it might be. So what could it be?

Berries

The plant starts off its life in January, where you will see glossy arrow shaped leaves appear on the woodland floor followed in April-May by the ‘flower’. This is not what you would normally think of as a flower. The flower consists of a modified leaf (called a spathe)and a club shaped purple-black spike of florets (called a spadix). I have seen them, but unfortunately I’ve never taken a picture. Here is the flower before opening. You can’t see much, as the modified leaf is covering the florets.

Flower just before opening

The flower as well as the leaves fade and the flowers turn into the berries you saw. They are called Lords-and-Ladies (Arum maculatum). So why is it called lords-and-ladies? It could be to do with the colouring, the lord being black, the lady being pale. Do you have any other theories?

The Latin name Arum comes from the Arabic word for fire: Nar. This is because of the burning juice that is found in all parts of the plant. All parts of the plant are poisonous and an irritant both external and internally. This is why it is called Arum lily in parts of the country. As well as this, it has many other names, including Babe-in-a-cradle and cuckoo pint. The latter name comes from the 14th century name for this plant: cokkowyl pyntyl: lively penis! Due to the phallic shape of the spadix it was thought to be an aphrodisiac.

The latin name maculatum relates to the leaves, which are spotted with black/purple blotches, but not always. It was thought by people in Wales to be Christ’s blood falling on the leaves at the foot of the cross.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle thought that bears ate lords-and-ladies to gain strength after waking up from hibernation.

Apart from this rather strange theory, a lot of part of the plants were used in the past. The main use was taking starch from the roots. However, the starch was an irritant (as all parts of the plant are), which chaps and blisters hands. It was used to stiffen ruffs in Elizabethan times, hence the name starchwort.

The cooked and ground roots were made into a power, which was once known in England as Portland Sago, due to the trade centre being on the Isle of Portland. The powder was used like arrowroot (a starch made from the roots of Maranta arundinacea) and salep (a flour made from orchid tubers and made into a hot drink in Turkey).

Another use for the root was to mix it with milk to get rid of freckles, spots, blemishes. The berries were cooked in rose oil for earache, and in County Offally the root was used to cure children of worms. It contains the same burning element as all parts of the plant, but when well baked is said to be harmless. But please do not go test this out!

Here comes the fun/gross/sciency part:

In the bottom swollen part of the spathe is a yellow pulp which gives out an cow dung like scent attracting midges. It also generates heat and can raise the surrounding air temperature by 15-25 degrees Celcius! Coming back to the midges, they go into the flower, but downward pointing hairs and a slippery surface trap them in there. On their first night there, the flies fertilise the flowers if they have already picked up pollen on another flower. On the second night they get showered by a sticky liquid and pollen, which sticks to them. The modified leaf withers and they are free to go to another flower. Poor flies, who only live a week anyway, got to spend two of them imprisoned in a flower. (But I don’t like midges anyway, cause they always seem to bite me).

So if you see berries on the forest floor, don’t assume they are edible. Just admire their beauty, and if you have any plants you are not sure of, let me know and I will do my best to identify them for you.

Yew- Taxus baccata

Just because Halloween is over, does not mean we cannot talk about poisonous berries, death and the afterlife (and a surprise at the end), so here it goes.

Yew trees are one of the very few native Irish evergreen trees. It is usually seen planted in churchyards or large estates, but in the wild it is found in the understory of woodlands. In Ireland there is only one native yew tree wood, which can be found in Reenadinna wood on the Muckross Peninsula, Co. Kerry. It’s one of the places on my ‘must-see’ list.

All parts of the yew tree are toxic to livestock and humans. The only part which isn’t poisonous is the aril (red flesh) around a single very poisonous (if not lethal) seed. But please do not try this, as there have been a few poisoning reported, both of humans and accidental poisonings of farm animals. However, the berries are eaten by birds. The berries pass through their digestive tract and become more viable for germination and this also helps in the dispersal of seeds. The leaves on yew trees are dark green with a lighter underside. Unlike deciduous trees, yew trees keep their leaves for up to 5 years, after which new leaves grow and the old ones are dropped.

Yew berries

Most yew trees are single sex. In Ireland most of them are female, meaning they produce berries. The male flowers are yellow and found on the underside of the branches, the female flowers are bud-like and green. They are wind-pollinated. I had never noticed them flower until I did some research for the Wildflower Walk in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny last March. Here it is:

Male flowers on a Yew tree

Yew trees are one of the world’s longest living trees. Some of them have been dated to be over 2000 years in old graveyards. Yew is traditionally associated with long life, a symbol of death, eternity and the afterlife, hence it being planted in graveyards. In England yews were planted there because they were said to take up the bad odours and humours of the dead- therefore sitting under a yew tree was said to be fatal due to the poisonous vapours it was said to release.

Yew trees can be found planted near houses as well, this was due to the myth that it provided protection from harm. In Scotland in particular it was planted to ward off witches and for safeguarding milk (from what I am not sure).

Apart from the magical powers the yew tree is said to have, it also has some practical uses, in particular the use of its wood. It provided very strong wood for croziers (hooked staff carried by a bishop) and shrines for books. It was used for making household containers, build building. The wood was used also used to make bows- the wood was strong, yet flexible, exactly what you need for a bow (I’ve been told). Yew wood preserves very well. This is shown by the fact that the world’s oldest known wooden artefact is a yew spear which 150,000 years old and was found in England.

Yew trees  have been found to contain anti-cancer compounds (Taxol), which are harvested from the bark of some yews. Taxol was discovered to inhibit cell growth and division and it was therefore put to use in chemotherapy, halting the production of cancer cells.

Lots of towns in Ireland are named after trees. One of them being Newry, which is called after a yew tree planted by St. Patrick.

Now for the more complicated bit: The Ogham alphabet is an ancient Irish alphabet which is sometimes referred to as the ‘Celtic tree alphabet’. This is because the letters are thought to have been called after trees. It was thought that the letters were ordered into an ancient ‘seasonal calendar of tree magic’, aligning all letters with seasons. Due to its associations with death and eternity, the yew tree is places at Samhain or Halloween (a time of death of the old year) in the Ogham seasonal calendar.

The Ogham letter and name for Yew.  Source: http://ireland-calling.com/celtic-mythology-yew-tree/

Did you know that yew trees could change their sex? No, neither did I until I read the following article yesterday:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-34700033

It’s about what is thought to be one of the oldest living organisms in Europe called the Fortingall yew tree in Perthshire, Scotland. It is thought to be around 2,00-3,000 years old, but some estimates suggest it might be up to 5,000 years old! The reason for such a wide range of estimations is the fact that the oldest growth rings rot away, so it is very hard to tell the age of the tree. Back to the sex-change, the tree which is male was found to have red berries on one of its branches, showing that that branch was female. How extraordinary is that!

I hope you will go out and see the yew tree in a new light, but remember all parts are poisonous, so it is best not to touch it.

Ps. You might be wondering, why am I talking about a few trees and not a lot of wildflowers (yet) on this blog. The answer is, at this time of year a lot of trees are producing fruit (whether poisonous or edible) and most wildflowers (the herbaceous or shrubby ones) are dying back at this time of year. So I thought I’d describe some of the trees to you. Let me know what you think.