Feverfew

Feverfew is a herbaceous perennial of the daisy family that forms a small, strongly scented bush up to about 70 centimetres tall. Its yellowish-green leaves are deeply cut into rounded lobes, and from early summer into autumn it carries loose, flat clusters of small daisies, white rays around a yellow centre. Native to the Balkans, Anatolia and the Caucasus, it has spread around the world in cultivation, seeds itself freely and can turn invasive away from home. Its bitterness keeps it largely out of the kitchen. The common name is usually traced to 'febrifuge', for it was thought to drive away fevers and agues, though it may come instead from the feathery featherfew. Dioscorides wrote of it in the first century, and Northcote found it still a favourite remedy among villagers in 1903. Today it is best known as a traditional preventive for migraine, though there is no clinical evidence that it has any therapeutic effect. Kynes links its species name to Athena Parthenos, and gathers older lore: an Anglo-Saxon charm used it to heal a wound from a spear-wielding she-elf, medieval Europeans wore it against plague and believed its smell kept evil spirits away, and in England simply laying it on a sickbed was thought enough to cure. Cunningham carries it to guard against colds, fevers and accidents, and Kynes uses it to send healing to someone in need and in protection spells and against jinxes.