Milfoil

The colourful clovers and trefoils, members of the genus Trifolium, are important as forage, although some may be weeds of field crops. Hop Trefoil, however, is a small plant which causes little damage in fields. Light-seeking, it is a typical plant of stubble, but also grows in meadows, in ditches alongside paths, and in scanty hedgerows. It is usually found in poor soils.

Another small field species often growing in sandy and gravelly soils (but in warmer regions than Hop Trefoil) is Hare’s-foot Trefoil (T. arvense L.). It, too, requires light and is mostly found in stubble, although it also grows in sunny hedgerows even in quite acid soils. It is not generally present in limestone regions.

Yet there is a darker side to this very pretty flower. There was a time when farmers had to search their harvested wheat for its seeds, to separate the Corn Cockle from the grain. The reason for this very old practice of separating the wheat from the chaff is quite simply that Corn Cockle seed is highly toxic: an admixture of even five per cent in grain is dangerous. Flour turns bitter, causing diarrhoea in humans, and the seed is harmful, too, in animal feed, particularly in the case of young stock.

Today, such precautions are no longer necessary since, largely due to modern methods of farming, Corn Cockle has virtually disappeared from the fields and adjacent countryside throughout Europe.

For centuries ordinary folk regarded Milfoil as one of the best of the herbal remedies, and it continues to be used medicinally to relieve spasms, to stimulate digestion, soothe coughs, and check bleeding. However, prolonged use of Milfoil – the active constituent is in the flowering top parts – may result in allergies, inflammation, headaches, and poisoning.

Milfoil is an interesting plant of the composite family. The flowerheads are not numerous. They usually consist of only five strap-shaped florets and a greater number of tubular florets, and the fruit is an achene.