Adventures in Archaeology, Human Palaeoecology and the Internet

In 2025, I am continuing to blog an A-Z compendium of human interactions with species in the British landscape. A list of references for information used in this series can be found here. An index of species covered so far can be found here.

Clover

Trifolium spp.

Trifolium repens (white clover) By Vinayaraj – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85816380

Clovers are small plants of the genus Trifolium in the pea family, that have leaves divided into three parts. Occasionally one is found divided into four or even into five – the rarity of these has led to the superstition that they are good luck. The trefoil leaves were reputedly used by Saint Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity, and so the shamrock (seamróg) has become an important symbol of Ireland. 

Clover is a valuable crop for feeding sheep and cattle, usually grown with grass, although it can lead to sheep bloat, a potentially fatal buildup of gases due to the rapid breakdown of clover protein. It is also a good source of nectar and pollen for bees. The asilke clover (Trifolium hybridum), whose flowers are initially white but later turn red and downturned, was introduced from Europe as a fodder crop, but has since naturalised. Like other members of the pea family, clovers have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into inorganic nitrogen compounds, improving the fertility of the soil. Clover is therefore valuable in fallow fields to help restore soil condition, as the nitrogen compounds are released into the soil when the plant dies or is ploughed into the ground. 

The flowers of red clover (T. pratense) can be used to make wine, and the leaves have been used as a cough remedy, especially in Ireland.  The recently germinated plants may be eaten as a sprout, although the plant is toxic so fewer than 550g of sprouts should be eaten in a day. 
White clover (T. repens) has also been known as milky blobs, sheepy-maa’s, honeystalks, and bee-bread). It is a very common perennial of grassy places. It was sometimes known as Dutch Clover or simply Dutch, as the seeds were often imported for use as a fodder crop. Clover seeds, likely accidentally harvested arable weeds, were found at Bronze Age Must Farm in Cambridgeshire, and Iron Age Great Barford by-pass in Bedfordshire and Ham Hill in Somerset, and Early Medieval Ashwell, Cambridgeshire. A clover calyx (a structure made of sepals that surrounds the flower) was recorded at Insula IX of Silchester. Seeds of strawberry clover (T. fragiferum), a plant of coastal sandy soils, were surprisingly found in a Roman-period context at Tanner Row in York.

Trifolium on the Digital Plant Atlas

In 2025, I am continuing to blog an A-Z compendium of human interactions with species in the British landscape. A list of references for information used in this series can be found here. An index of species covered so far can be found here.

Cloudberry

Rubus chamaemorus L. 1753 not Fisch. ex Ser. 1825

Also known as knotberry

By Littleisland lighthouse, Bjørn Tennøe – originally posted to Flickr as Cloudberries, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11335952

A low, creeping shrub, found primarily in mountainous areas on peaty soils, which produces red fruit that turns orange when ripe. Cloudberry bushes do not fruit as prolifically as their relative the bramble. Only female plants produce fruit, and the plant more often reproduces by underground stems than seeds, with the result that large clumps may only be one sex further increasing the scarcity of the fruit. Richard Mabey notes that the relative scarcity of berries was commemorated in the Berwyn mountains of Wales, where in ‘Llanrhaiadr’ (Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys) a quart of cloudberries was said to be St Dogfan’s wage, and anyone who could provide this on the saints day would be spared their tithes (taxes) for the year. The fruit is high in vitamin C.

Rubus chamaemorus on the Digital Plant Atlas

In 2025, I am continuing to blog an A-Z compendium of human interactions with species in the British landscape. A list of references for information used in this series can be found here. An index of species covered so far can be found here.

Clary

Salvia sclarea -By Meneerke bloem. Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10641430

Salvia sclarea L.

Also known as clary sage and hot housemaids

A relative of sage, clary bears blue-violet flowers from May. It is found in dry grasslands in southern and eastern England. Its seeds swell when immersed in water, and have been used to treat sore eyes, indeed Dr R.C.A. Prior’s 1863 book On The Popular Names of British Plants suggests that the name clary is a corruption of clear-eye. The name hot housemaids derives from the similarity of its smell with body odour.  Its flowers have a taste somewhere between sage and mint. Its leaves have been used as a spice, and in flavouring wine and vermouth. Essential oils of clary have a larvicidal effects on the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti.

Salvia sclarea on the Digital Plant Atlas

In 2025, I am continuing to blog an A-Z compendium of human interactions with species in the British landscape. A list of references for information used in this series can be found here. An index of species covered so far can be found here.

Cinquefoil, Creeping

Potentilla reptans L.

Also known as five-finger-grass or five-leaf

A creeping plant which, like the strawberry, sends out long runners, bearing yellow flowers from June to September. It is common in lowland Britain and Ireland, although somewhat rare in Scotland. Because the plant can regrow from small fragmented pieces of rhizome, it became more common in arable fields with the advent of mouldboard ploughing in the 18th century. Its low-growing nature also means that it is unaffected by grazing, and it can recover quickly from trampling. 

It has been used as a substitute in folk medicine for the more potent tormentil (Potentilla erecta), which has astringent properties. A tea has been made from it as a digestive aid. In Medieval times, it was hung over doors to repel witches.

Potentilla reptans on the Digital Plant Atlas

In 2025, I am continuing to blog an A-Z compendium of human interactions with species in the British landscape. A list of references for information used in this series can be found here. An index of species covered so far can be found here.

Cicely, Sweet

Myrrhis odorata (L.) Scop.

Myrrhis odortata, by Hectonichus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35718694

Also known as anise root, candy plant, European sweet chervil, garden myrrh, myrrh, Spanish chervil, sweet chervil, sweet cicely.

A softly hairy perennial with hollow stems and a delicate aniseed scent which grows to about 1 – 1.5m, bearing umbels of small white flowers between May and July. Sweet cicely is a naturalised introduction which is widespread across northern Britain in grassy places, on waste ground, and on banks. It was probably introduced by the Romans from France. The seeds, roots and leaves are edible. Sweet cicely seeds may be sprinkled on bread. The nature writer Richard Mabey recommends using the sugary leaves to flavour stewed fruits such as gooseberries, and also says that in Cumbria it has been used to polish oak doors. It has been used as a folk treatment for coughs in Suffolk, and is one of the 130 plants used to flavour the French herbal liqueur chartreuse. Its seeds were found in late medieval pits at Sewer Lane, Hull.

Myrrhis odorata on the Digital Plant Atlas

In 2025, I am continuing to blog an A-Z compendium of human interactions with species in the British landscape. A list of references for information used in this series can be found here. An index of species covered so far can be found here.

Chicory

Cichorium intybus L.

Also known as succory and radicchio

Chicory flower by Darkone – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=200896

A herb in the daisy family with large pale blue flowers clustered at the top of tough stems, found on roadsides, in meadows and besides railways throughout Britain, but most commonly in southern and eastern England. It has been sown on chalk soils because it has a deep taproot that helps break up subsoil, and because cattle like it. The name derives from the Arabic chicouryeh. The young leaves are edible.The roots can be boiled and eaten, or roast and ground to make an alternative (or addition to) coffee, for which the plant was used fairly extensively during the Second World War, when coffee was scarce. Endive is a closely related cultivated version of the plant. Chicory was among the plant remains recovered from late Medieval Shrewsbury Abbey and chicory achenes have been recovered in Grimsby. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder recommended chicory for stomach complaints.

Cichorium intybus on the Digital Plant Atlas