Skullcap

Skullcap is the common name of Scutellaria, a genus of some 300 or more species in the mint family, found almost worldwide but mostly in temperate regions, and especially plentiful in America. Most are annual or perennial herbs from a few centimetres to about a metre tall, with square stems, paired leaves and two-lipped flowers, often blue. The genus is known at once by the small shield on the calyx, which gave it both its Latin name, from scutella, a little dish, and its English one, from a likeness to a close-fitting medieval cap. Britain has two native species, the common and the lesser skullcap, both of riverbanks, bogs and wet ground. Skullcaps have a long medicinal history: in England common skullcap was given as a sedative for anything from headache to madness, from 1773 the Virginian or mad-dog skullcap became a North American remedy for rabies, and several Native American nations used skullcaps chiefly for menstrual complaints and in purification ceremonies for girls coming of age. The root of Baikal skullcap is so widely used in Chinese medicine that the wild plant has been overharvested. In magic Cunningham assigns skullcap to Saturn and water, for love, fidelity and peace, using it in spells of relaxation and saying that a wife who wears it shields her husband from other women's charms; Kynes adds Pluto, Aquarius, Capricorn and Virgo, and uses it for harmony, creativity and healing.