Elecampane

Elecampane is a stiff, tall herb of the daisy family, native from Spain across Eurasia to Xinjiang and naturalised in parts of North America. Its stem rises to between one and two metres, with large, toothed leaves, woolly and whitish beneath, and in summer it carries broad yellow flower heads with a tangle of narrow rays, like a shaggy daisy. The thick, branching root is bitter, with a camphor-like smell touched with violet. The species name recalls Helen of Troy: the plant was said to have sprung where her tears fell, or to have filled her hands when Paris carried her off. Theophrastus prescribed it in oil and wine against bites, Pliny named the root as medicine and condiment, and in medieval Europe the root was candied as a sweetmeat. Long tied to elves and faeries, it was once called elfwort, and the Anglo-Saxons used it against elf-shot, the invisible weapon elves were thought to wound with. On Guernsey it went into love charms gathered on Midsummer Eve, mixed with ambergris and worn over the heart for nine days, and in the Balkans it was sewn into children's clothes against witches. Cunningham wears it to draw love, carries it for protection, and smoulders it on charcoal to sharpen psychic powers, especially in scrying.