Marigold (Calendula officinalis)
Flowers: June to September. Height: Up to 60cm (24in).
Medicinal: In medieval times, the Marigold, or Maryegold, was seen as one of the main ‘plague herbs’. The flowers were used to heal wounds, headaches and toothache while Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (1653) recommended the leaves be mixed with a little vinegar, for “any hot swelling bathed with it, instantly gives ease, and assuages it”.
Culinary: The petals were used fresh in salads, and, used as a saffron substitute, dried to colour cheese.
Magic & Myth: Whoever saw a Marigold in the early morning would be protected by it from fevers all that day. It was also believed that “If one has has belongings stolen by unknown thieves, one may hang the marigold amulet around one’s neck at night, and one will have a vision of the thieves”.
Doctrine of Signatures: Indicated that as the flowers resembled the pupil of the eye, it was good for eye disorders. The famous English herbalist William Cole (1626-62) wrote “the distilled water helpeth red and watery eyes, being washed therewith, which it does by Signature, as Crollius* saith’.
*Oswaldus Crollius (1580 – 1609) was a disciple of the school of Paracelsus and author of Basilica Chymica (1612), the third part of which is the Book of Signatures.
