Botany – Wise Old Man from the Sea

The first time I saw rosebay willowherb [Chamaenerion angustifolium (L.) Scop.] was in Trondheim, in a river bank by the Nidelva, coming down from Kristiansten Festning. It was a gloriously sunny day of mid-August in 2011, although the light already had a somewhat autumn quality to it, and the chill was perceptible. The bright purple of its flowers and the uncanny shape of the inflorescence made it stand out above all other vegetation. It was also spread throughout an extension of the shore, creating a gorgeous blanket of a colour quite like no other. At the time I thought it was a native plant of Scandinavia. I surely had never seen any like that in my home country. I’m far from being an experienced botanist but I would have noticed such a striking species. I dully photographed and later identified it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is actually quite rare in Portugal[1][2], but native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere. I have since found it every year in August, both in Sweden and the UK. When taking a train during this time of the year, the sides of the track occasionally erupt in a purple explosion, extending through meadows and track sides. It is abundant in calcareous soils with fields or pastures, and burned lands, granting it the name of fireweed in the Americas. Richard Mabey’s in his magisterial Flora Britannica[3] suggests the rapid spread of this species was associated with the expansion of the rail network. Check!

Interesting facts: it also grew rapidly in bomb craters, during WWII; in Finland it was added to cattle feed in the belief it increased milk production (maybe it did!); it was used in Russia as tea before the introduction of Camellia sinensis; and apparently, the root of rosebay willowherb can also be grounded and employed as substitute for coffee (volunteers anyone?).

Seed stage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaenerion_angustifolium#/media/File:Epilobium_angustifolium_Fireweed_seed_stage_tall.jpg)

Epilobium angustifolium (http://www.sitkanature.org/wordpress/2007/07/27/totem-park/)

For me the willowherb means the end of summer, which for those who live in the Northern latitudes occurs in mid-late August. I remember in Trondheim, when I first saw it, university students were fully immersed in their beginning of the school year less-than-sober frolics. In Sweden, university lectures started as the purple flowers were legion in the rail track edges, a mellow golden glow already penetrating the windows and the last despaired kräftskivor still sounding in the afternoons. In England… well, in England it’s just grey in August, but it’s definitively an Autumn shade of grey.

And so it is, every time I see those gorgeous purple flowers: the last scream of gaiety and summer joyfulness.

And so it is, every time I see those gorgeous purple flowers: the last scream of gaiety and summer joyfulness. Yet another summer passed by. A dire reminder that youth passes quickly and bliss cannot last forever. Time to return to work or to school. ‘Tis the season to slow down, to harvest, to store, to prepare. Winter is coming and all that jazz. Air those jumpers out of the wardrobe. Play this song in a loop.