Solomon's Seal

Solomon's seal is a rhizomatous perennial of the family Asparagaceae, native to Europe and temperate Asia, and one of three species of its genus native to Britain. Its arching stems, up to about ninety centimetres tall, carry alternate oval leaves along their upper half, with small tubular white flowers tipped with green hanging beneath them in clusters of two to seven, followed by pea-sized blackish-blue berries. It likes light soil and shade, spreading readily through woodland by its creeping rootstock. The name is usually traced to the round scars on the rootstock, said to look like the impression of a seal, or to marks like Hebrew letters seen when the root is cut across. Grieve records the root as astringent, demulcent and tonic, laid on bruises and black eyes and given in wine to help broken bones knit, while the young shoots were boiled and eaten like asparagus in Turkey. Kynes tells how medieval Europeans prized the root as an amulet if King Solomon's seal could be made out on it, how Germans called it a key to underground treasure chambers, and how in France and Belgium its fronds were hung on houses and barns for luck on May Day. Cunningham and Kynes both give it to Saturn and water; Cunningham names it for protection and exorcism and adds it to offertory incenses.