Fairy Wand

Fairy wand is a perennial herb of eastern North America, growing in places as different as wet meadows and deciduous woodland, east of the Mississippi and once as far north as southern Ontario. A low rosette of spoon-shaped, dark green leaves sends up a single stem topped by a slender spike crowded with tiny white flowers like little starbursts. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants: the male spikes are white, larger and droop at the tip, while the female flowers are faintly green and stand on taller stalks. The airy look of those spikes is what tied the plant to the faeries. Its genus name joins Greek words for a lily that grows on the ground. The Cherokee, and later European settlers, used it for many ailments, and it was long muddled with unicorn root, Aletris farinosa, the words true and false passing back and forth between the two. Traditionally it was used to prevent miscarriage and was reputed to improve fertility. Because it is normally gathered from the wild the plant is at risk, and Kynes asks buyers to check where a vendor's supply comes from. In magic Kynes gives it to earth and to Venus, with powers that include fertility, love, fidelity, healing, protection and purification, and sprinkles its flower essence to cast a circle or consecrate a space.