

Hag berries and other witchy names
Roy Vickery’s ‘Folk Flora’ is full of anecdotes relating to the wild plants growing in the verges and hedgerows of Britain. There's much wisdom to be gleaned from the etymology of old plants, names often contain clues (or warnings) to their herbal, medicinal and culinary uses. Some are based on superstition, such as mother's dead or devil's may as it was known in our family - my 'Brummie' nan, for example, wouldn't have it in the house as she considered it unlucky and even n