Solomon's seal
Since having my daughter, little Dusty, my wanderings around the village have become confined to a much smaller area, much to Stevie, the dogs’ chagrin. Perhaps though this is a blessing in disguise as either I’ve become more observant or I’m lucky enough that a few things have caught my attention which are interesting for me to talk about, whether they’re interesting to hear about will remain to be seen!
If you’re a gardener you’ll know that feeling when a plant that you thought had been lost, pops up somewhere else in the garden, or some seeds that were scattered, seemingly fruitlessly, burst into life when you’d almost forgotten about them. In opening up my metaphorical garden boundary to include the plants beyond, I have the same excitement in experiencing little wonders in the community of wild plants. The only difference is that you lack much of the power to protect nature that is vulnerable to so many pressures.
My latest treat is Solomon's seal Polygonatum multiflorum, one of my favourite plants, wild or in the garden. For such a beautiful and unique plant it's a surprise that the first part of its Latin name (the genus) describes its roots poly meaning ‘many’ and gonu meaning ‘knee joints’. Its common name also describes its roots, which as far as I can gather refers to the two interlocked triangles that occur where the stem emerges from the root, representing the seal of King Solomon, Though I cannot verify this without digging up some roots. Which is exactly what you would do if you were to use this plant as a medicinal remedy to mitigate against severe bruising and to reduce swelling.
Solomons seal has other such poetic common names as; Davis’s harp and ladder to heaven which do recognise the beauty of the above ground parts of the plant, my favourite though, brought to my attention by Richard Maybe in his Flora Botanica, has to be the Dorset name of sow’s tits, hey, I don’t come up with these things, I’m just the messenger! They’re like that in Dorset!
Solomon’s seal can be found the world over from North America thru Russia to Japan. We here have three native species of Solomon's seal: The one above, and also angular Solomon’s seal Polygonatum odoratum and whorled Solomon’s seal Polygonatum verticillatum. Just to add a bit of spice there is also a hybrid made up of two of the native species - Polygonatum multiflorum x odoratum = P. x hybridum known as garden Solomon’s seal which has become widely naturalised into the countryside.
The wonderfully named Charlotte de la Bédoyère in her book Starting out with Native Plants tells of its attractiveness to bumblebees, but again, I am yet to observe this.
Where I found this plant growing, it was amongst bluebell and wood anemone that are both indicators of ancient woodland (read more about this in my April 2023 piece), so I looked up solomon’s seal in the National Vegetation Classifications (NVC’s) to see if solomon’s seal was also an indicator plant and found it to exist in the W8 classification along with the two above, informing me that very close to my home are little reminders left behind from a lowland ancient woodland of mixed oak and ash, and from there I can search all the related plants to its native plant community. Well it was exciting to me!
