🌿Foraging in Cornwall: Medieval Herbology and the Lessons of Queen Anne’s Lace

Cornwall’s ancient hedgerows are more than picturesque—they are living apothecaries. For centuries, local herbalists and wise women turned to these hedges and meadows for food and medicine, guided by folklore, careful observation, and tradition. Today, modern foragers can still gather many of the same plants found in medieval herbals.

Medieval Medicinals in Cornwall’s Hedgerows

Five herbs that once filled ancient apothecary jars and healing brews still grow wild across Cornwall:

🌿 Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Known as “soldier’s woundwort,” yarrow was carried into battlefields for its power to staunch bleeding. Its feathery leaves also made teas to ease fevers and colds.

🌞 St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Bright yellow, perforated leaves gave this plant its name. Gathered at midsummer, it was used to lift melancholy, ease nerve pain, and ward off evil spirits.

🌳 Elder (Sambucus nigra)

Called “the people’s medicine chest,” elder offered blossoms for fevers, berries for immunity, and even bark for purging. Revered and feared, cutting an elder without asking permission was thought to anger the Elder Mother spirit.

🌼 Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis )

Features: bright yellow flowers, milky stems, toothed leaves

Season to Harvest: leaves in spring, roots in autumn, flowers in early summer

Uses: diuretic, liver tonic, skin balm ingredient

Medieval Lore: “Piss-a-bed,” valued spring cleanser

My Joy in Foraging Queen Anne’s Lace

One plant I return to again and again is Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). Its delicate, lacy umbels float across Cornish fields like little constellations of white stars. Folklore says Queen Anne pricked her finger while embroidering lace, leaving a crimson drop—the tiny dark floret that sometimes graces the flower’s center.

Medicinal Benefits

Queen Anne’s lace is aligned with the air element and Mercury—uplifting, stimulating, and aromatic. Traditionally, it has been used for:

• Digestion – The seeds relieve gas and cramping when cooked into food.

• Urinary support – Infusions stimulate the kidneys and flush toxins.

• Circulation & menstruation – Its warming nature helps move blood.

• Endocrine health – Folk traditions link it to hormone balance, libido, and even herbal contraception in ancient Greece.

  
  

The Dangerous Look-Alike: Poison Hemlock

For all its gifts, Queen Anne’s lace has a deadly twin—poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). Confusing the two has cost lives.

Here’s how to tell them apart:

Features:

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)

Stem: Hairy, solid

Leaves: Carroty scent when crushed

Flower:  Flat white umbels, sometimes with a single purple/red floret in its center

Root: Carrot-like (though tough with age)

Poison Hemlock

(Conium maculatum)

Stem : Hollow, purple blotches

Leaves: Lacy leaves with a rank, mousy odor

Flower : Rounded umbels, white or cream colored florets, no red or purple florets

Root: White, unpleasant smell.

👉 Tip: “The queen has hairy legs.” If the stem isn’t hairy, don’t touch. It's not the Queen !

When in doubt, go without! Do not pick.

Forager’s Takeaway

⚜️ Cornwall’s wild plants carry echoes of medieval herbology. Yarrow, St. John’s wort, and elder remind us of the healing ways of old.

⚜️ Queen Anne’s lace is a medicine of digestion, circulation, and subtle endocrine influence.

⚜️ Yet foragers must stay vigilant—its look-alike, poison hemlock, is deadly. Always cross-check your identification before gathering.

✨ Join us on foraging day trips, retreats and herbcraft workshops in Spain or in the UK, Check our event page for details . ✨

✨ Foraging reminds us that the wild earth still whispers her medicine if we only pause to listen—join us at Aura Sukha workshops to deepen your connection with herbs, history, and hands-on magic beneath the Mallorcan sun. 🌿