Angular Solomon's seal (Polygonatum odoratum) is a poisonous perennialherb of the family Liliaceae native to Britain, occurring in northern and western England and rarely in Wales. It has a thick, white, creeping rhizome and angled, arched stems, which bear numerous alternate, ovate to elliptic leaves in two rows. The flowers are white in colour, drooping, fragrant and tubular and grow singly or in pairs from the leaf axils. The fruit is a dark-blue berry. Research Angular Solomon's Seal
Arrowroot (Maranta arundinaceae) also known as Araruta, is a herbaceousperennial of the family Marantaceae, native to the West Indies and Central America. It has a creeping rhizome with upward-curving, fleshy, cylindrical tubers covered with large, thin scales that leave rings of scars. The flowering stem reaches a height of two metres and bears creamy flowers at the ends of the slender branches that terminate the long peduncles. They grow in pairs. The numerous, ovate, glabrous leaves are from five to 25 centimetres long with long sheaths often enveloping the stem. A starch is extracted from the rhizomes and used in cooking and in herbal medicine for treating scorpion and spiderstings. Research Arrowroot
Aspidistra is a genus of plants of the lily family, comprising three or four species, natives of China and Japan, being plants with large smooth rectangular lanceolate leaves, rising from an underground rhizome, and with campanulate flowers of a dull purplish or brownish colour. Research Aspidistra
Balm or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is a perennialherb of the family Labiate with a short rhizome and an erect, much-branched square stem. The leaves are opposite, stalked, ovate, yellow green and crenate. The flowers are small, two-lipped and grow in whorls in the upper leaf axils. The flowers change colour as they mature from pale yellow through white to pale blue. The fruit consists of four smooth nutlets. All parts of the plant are finely hairy and have a strong lemon scent. Research Balm
Bamboo is a genus of arborescent grasses (family Gramineae) found chiefly in warm climates. There are many species, the culms are round (rarely square), jointed, sometimes thorny, and hollow or solid with evergreen or deciduous leaves and can grow to 30 metres high and a diameter of 30 cm.
The best-known species is Bamboo arundinacea, common in tropical and sub-tropical regions. From the creeping underground rhizome, which is long, thick, and jointed, spring several round jointed stalks, which send out from their joints several shoots, the stalks also being armed at their joints with one or two sharp rigid spines. The oval leaves, about 20 cm long, are placed on short footstalks. The flowers grow in large panicles from the joints of the stalk. Some stems grow to 25 cm in diameter, and are so hard and durable as to be used for building purposes. The smaller stalks are used for walking sticks, flutes, etc; and indeed the plant is used for innumerable purposes in the East Indies, China, and other Eastern countries. Cottages are almost wholly made of it; also, bridges, boxes, water-pipes, ladders, fences, bows and arrows, spears, baskets, mats, paper, masts for boats, etc. The young shoots are pickled and eaten, or otherwise used as food; the seeds of some species are also eaten. The substance called tabasheer is a siliceous deposit that gathers at the internodes of the stems. The bamboo is imported into Europe and America as a paper material as well as for other purposes. Research Bamboo
The banana is a perennialherb cultivated in tropical and sub tropical climates. Bananas are fast-growing, arising from underground rhizomes. The fleshy stalks or pseudostems formed by upright concentric layers of leaf sheaths constitute the functional trunks. The true stem begins as an underground corm which grows upwards, pushing its way out through the centre of the stalk 10 to 15 months after planting, eventually producing the terminal inflorescence which will later bear the fruit. Each stalk produces one huge flowercluster and then dies. New stalks then grow from the rhizome. The large rectangular or elliptic leaf blades are extensions of the sheaths of the pseudostem and are joined to them by fleshy, deeply grooved, short petioles. The leaves unfurl, as the plant grows, at the rate of one per week in warm weather, and extend upward and outward , becoming as much as 2.5 metres long and 0.75 metres wide. They may be entirely green, green with maroon patches, or green on the upper side and red-purple beneath. The leaf veins run from the mid-rib straight to the outer edge of the leaf. Even when the wind shreds the leaf, the veins are still able to function. Approximately 44 leaves will appear before the inflorescence. The banana inflorescence shooting out from the heart in the tip of the stem, is at first a large, long-oval, tapering, purple-clad bud. As it opens, the slim, nectar-rich, tubular, toothed, white flowers appear. They are clustered in whorled double rows along the floral stalk, each cluster covered by a thick, waxy, hood like bract, purple outside and deep red within.
The flowers occupying the first five to fifteen rows are female. As the rachis of the inflorescence continues to elongate, sterile flowers with abortive male and female parts appear, followed by normal staminate ones with abortive ovaries. The two latter flower types eventually drop in most edible bananas. The ovaries contained in the first (female) flowers grow rapidly, developing parthenocarpically into clusters of fruits, called hands. The number of hands varies with the species and variety.
The fruit (technically a berry) turns from deep green to yellow or red, and may range from ten centimetres to thirty centimetres in length and two centimetres to five centimetres in diameter. The flesh, ivory-white to yellow or salmon-yellow, may be firm, astringent, even gummy with latex when unripe, turning tender and slippery, or soft and mellow or rather dry and mealy or starchy when ripe. The flavour may be mild and sweet or slightly acid with a distinct appletone. The common cultivated types are generally seedless with just vestiges of ovules visible as brown specks. Occasionally, cross-pollination with wild types will result in a number of seeds in a normally seedless variety. Research Banana
Common bistort (Polygonum Bistorta), adder's-wort or snakeroot, is a perennialherb of the buckwheat family, family Polygonaceae, found in Britain. It has a stout, snake-like twisted rhizome and an erect, unbranched stem. The basalovate to lanceolate leaves with undulate margins and winged petioles are arranged in a rosette. The smaller stem leaves are triangular, sessile and clasp the stem. The flowers are pink in colour, and arranged in a dense terminal spike. The fruit is a three-sided achene surrounded by a persistent perianth.
Common bistort contains a lot of tannin, which gives it astringent properties and led to its use in medicine. The young leaves can be eaten in salads or cooked like spinach and the root is edible after it has been soaked and roasted. In northern England it is commonly called Easter Giant and around Manchester it is called Patience Dock. Research Bistort
Biting Stonecrop (Sedum acre) or wall-pepper, is a highly poisonous, evergreen mat-forming perennialherb of the family Crassulaceae, native to Britain and Europe, with a creeping branched rhizome and numerous ascending or erect stems, which are of two kinds: non-flowering stems with numerous overlapping wedge-shaped, fleshy, sessile yellow leaves; and fewer-leaved flowering stems terminated by bright-yellow coloured, star-shaped flowers arranged in a monochasial cyme. The leaves have a sharp, burning (or biting) taste like pepper, whence the name. Research Biting Stonecrop
Black horehound (Ballota nigra) is a perennial European herb of the family Labiate with a short, stout, rhizome and erect or ascending, branched, square and leafy stems. The leaves are opposite, stalked, wrinkled and coarsely crenate-serrate. All the parts of the plant are hairy and have a strong, disagreeable smell and taste. The flowers are usually pinkish-purple, though sometimes white, and are arranged in numerous whorls in the upper leaf axils. The corolla has two lips; the upper lip is hooded, the lower lip has prominent white markings on it. The calyx is funnel-shaped with five veins and five broad spreading teeth which are curved back in the fruit which consists of four smooth one-seeded nutlets. Research Black Horehound
Bloodroot or Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) is a perennialherb of the family Rosaceae native to Britain, Europe and western Asia. It has a stout rhizome and ascending or almost erect, on-rooting branched stems. The basal leaves are stalked, coarsely-toothed, termate and arranged in a rosette. The stem leaves are sessile, ternate and have a pair of palmately lobed leafy stipules. The flowers are yellow, long-stalked and arranged in loose terminal cymes, having only four petals and sepals. The astringentroot is used in medicine as an analgesic, for tanning, and in dyeing. Research Bloodroot
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Angular Solomon's Seal
