The Holly and ...

There are few wild plants associated more with Autumn and ancient tradition than Holly and Ivy (although Mistletoe is up there too - I'll do a post on that plant soon). The red berries of Holly are bursting out all over and the Ivy is in flower.

We'll look at Holly in this blogpost and Ivy in the next.

Superstition, magic and myth surround the Holly tree. The Druids, Celts and Romans brought evergreens into their homes during winter - the idea was to bring Nature through the darkest part of the year to re-emerge in spring for another year’s fertility.  In times past, a  boy in a suit of holly leaves and a girl in ivy, paraded around the village. 

People brought holly into the house for other reasons too. Sometimes it was to protect the home from malevolent faeries. It was also to allow faeries to shelter in the home without friction between them and the human occupants. In pagan times, Holly was thought to be a male plant and Ivy female. One old tradition from the Midlands says that whichever plant enters the house first in winter will dictate whether the males or females rule the home for the following year – although bringing either inside before Christmas Eve is again said to be unlucky. Prior to Victorian times the term ‘Christmas tree’ actually referred to Holly. However, before considering it as an alternative to the now traditional fir tree, remember that it’s considered bad luck to cut down a whole Holly tree. 

Christianity adopted the Holly as a symbol of Christ’s crown of thorns - which is why the Christmas carol The Holly and the Ivy has the line 'Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly wears the crown'. The crimson berries are also supposed to represent drops of his blood and the evergreen leaves are a metaphor for life after death. Of course, the crucifixion is more associated with Easter than with Christmas but, as with many other pagan festivals, the tradition of decking the halls with protective boughs of Holly was absorbed into Christian tradition. 

John Leech's influential 1843 drawing of the Ghost of Christmas Present that appeared in the first edition of Charles Dickens' novella 'A Christmas Carol'. The figure draws on the older tradition of the Holly King - note the crown of Holly and the green robes.

In Celtic mythology the Holly King ruled over the half of the year from the summer to the winter solstice. At this time the Oak King defeated the Holly King to rule for the time until the summer solstice again. These two aspects of the Nature God were later incorporated into Mummers’ plays performed around Yuletide. The Holly King was depicted as a powerful giant of a man covered in holly leaves and branches, and wielding a Holly bush as a club. The Green Knight of Arthurian legend may have been based on this same archetype. In this tale Gawain rose to the Green Knight’s formidable challenge during the Round Table’s Christmas celebrations. However the folklore of the Holly is not solely connected with Yuletide festivities. 

'But the hue of his every feature 

Stunned them: as could be seen, 

Not only was this creature Colossal,

He was bright green. 

No spear to thrust, 

No shield against the shock of battle, 

But in one hand a solitary branch of holly 

That shows greenest when all the groves are leafless'.

from ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ ca. 1370 – 1390, author unknown 

As mentioned above, people believed that Holly had protective properties. Bushes were often left uncut in hedges when these were trimmed. A more arcane reason for this was to obstruct witches who people believed ran along the tops of hedges. More practically farmers used their distinctive evergreen shapes to establish lines of sight during winter ploughing. The Duke of Argyll even had a prospective road rerouted to avoid cutting down a distinctive old holly in 1861. 

Holly leaves also proved to be particularly nutritious as winter feed for livestock. Some farmers even installed grinders to make the pricklier leaves more palatable. Holly was an important element in deer parks and old hunting estates – and the name holly still survives in modern place names such as Hollins, Holm Hodder, Hollyoaks and Hollywood – and were important for winter food. In the New Forest, in southern England, Holly is still cut down for the ponies to graze on.

Coppicing also allowed the Holly’s hard, white, close-grained wood to be used for inlaid marquetry and to make chess pieces and tool handles. Folklore suggested that the wood had an affinity for control, especially of horses. Most whips for ploughmen and horse-drawn coaches were made from coppiced Holly, which accounted for hundreds of thousands of stems during the eighteenth century. As well as its decorative uses, Holly wood burns hot and long, making it a perfect fire fuel on cold, winter nights.

Holly trees were traditionally planted near houses to offer protection from lightning. European mythology associated Holly with thunder gods such as Thor and Taranis. We now know that the spines on Holly leaves can act as miniature lightning conductors, thereby protecting the tree and other nearby objects. Science occasionally catches up with old country lore! 

Holly and Ivy are often linked together at Christmas. 

But more on that in the next blogpost.

The point of Holly

I wrote a fair amount about Holly last year (see here) so you can follow that link to read more about the plant and the lore surrounding it. Holly is a native tree to the UK and was a sacred trees to our ancestors.

I thought I knew a lot about Holly. However, a recent post on social media by a group that celebrates trees stated that:

Holly leaves are naturally leathery and have an oval, smooth edge. However, when the plant gets predated by deer or cattle, it switches genes on to make them spiky when they regrow. So on taller Holly trees, the upper leaves (which are out of reach) have smooth edges, while the lower leaves are prickly.

It was accompanied by this photo:

Was this true I wondered? If so, I was unaware of it. And, besides, the term 'switches genes' didn't really make a lot of sense to me. So I did some research and asked a few questions.

The first few responses I got back were from gardeners - both professional and amateur - who assured me that the same effect is created by pruning. As one wrote: 'Pruning is just intentionally doing what nature does by accident. Want a taller plant? Trick it into thinking critters are nibbling down low. Want it be shorter and fatter? Cut the top so it thinks it ran into something. You trick the plant into taking the shape you want.' But that didn't explain the change in leaf shape.  

Another person explained that: 'In South Yorkshire from the 14th to the 18th century, there is documented evidence of Holly being used as fodder for livestock particularly in winter i.e. when snow prevented access to grass. This took advantage of the fact that the upper leaves of Holly are smooth (as they don't need to protect themselves from browsing by deer like the lower leaves). Special plantations of Holly were called Haggs, and is still a lot of modern place name evidence e.g. Hollin, Hagg etc are all linked to this practice - Fox Hagg in Sheffield, Hollin Busk in Deepcar etc.'

This goes some way towards validating the cause (predation) of leaf prickles but still didn't explain how the plant does it. Thankfully a biologist on Reddit then came forward with this explanation (quoting from a paper*): 'All of the leaves on a tree are genetic twins and share exactly the same DNA sequence. By looking in the DNA for traces of a chemical process called methylation, which modifies DNA but doesn't alter the organism's genetic sequence, the team could determine whether leaf variation was a response to environmental or genetic changes. They found a relationship between recent browsing by animals, the growth of prickly leaves, and methylation. "In holly, what we found is that the DNA of prickly leaves was significantly less methylated than prickless leaves, and from this we inferred that methylation changes are ultimately responsible for leaf shape changes," Herrera said. "The novelty of our study is that we show that these well-known changes in leaf type are associated with differences in DNA methylation patterns, that is, epigenetic changes that do not depend on variation in the sequence of DNA."' 

So, now we know. It is apparently true that predation of Holly causes lower branch leaves to get spiky. And not just by deer and cattle. There are other nibblers too such as caterpillars and weevils. And many birds and even foxes eat the berries so may damage the leaves that way. 

But it is another fascinating example of cooperation in the natural world - the leaves are predated and get spiky - this provides birds and small mammals with a protected space in which to nest - they eat the berries and then distribute the seeds in their droppings - more Holly trees grow to feed the deer and other leaf eaters. 

I love those kinds of stories. We're starting to understand that nature isn't all 'survival of the fittest' after all. Firstly, that was a misquote as Darwin actually said 'Survival of the most fit' i.e the best suited to its environment. And, secondly, species that cooperate tend to do better than species that don't (for a great example of this see here).

That applies to humans too. No one person can build an Airbus A380 but thousands of humans working together can. Cooperative behaviour is what made the human race the dominant species on this planet. 

Now we need to learn to cooperate with other species so that we all flourish. 

___________________________________________

*Herrera. C, Bazaga. P, ‘Epigenetic correlates of plant phenotypic plasticity: DNA methylation differs between prickly and nonprickly leaves in heterophyllous Ilex aquifolium (Aquifoliaceae) trees’, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Wiley, December 2012, DOI: 10.1111/boj.12006

See also this article published by the Royal Linnean Society (Royal Society for Animal Biology).

... and the Ivy

Ivy, like Holly, is an important evergreen edible plant species in UK woodland. It's one of only five woody climbers and, like Mistletoe, it can form dense growths in canopies that can cause harm to the host. 

There are many different species of Ivy - English Ivy, Glacier, Swedish, Needlepoint, Boston, Algerian, Irish, Himalayan., Poison, and more - and they vary in colour from near white through variegated forms to deep glossy green. The leaf shape can also be anything from spear shaped to three lobed to five lobed depending on maturity and where on the plant the leaf is. 

Even common English Ivy (Hedera helix) can have a number of variant shapes and colours.  Here are a few I photographed in the wild yesterday lunchtime:

They have two leaf types: lobed juvenile leaves are found on creeping and climbing stems; and unlobed adult leaves grow on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun. The juvenile and adult shoots also differ. The former are slender, flexible and have small roots that anchor the shoot to rocks or tree bark. The latter are thicker, self-supporting, and don't have roots. 

Flowers are produced in late autumn. They are individually small, greenish-yellow, and are grouped in 3–5 cm diameter umbels. They are very rich in nectar, which makes them an important late food source for bees and other insects. The fruit are small black berries that ripen in late winter, providing yet another food source - though not for humans because, like all parts of the Ivy plant, they are poisonous to us.

Despite this fact, people in Ancient Greece believed that the effects of intoxication could be removed by bruising and boiling a handful of Ivy leaves in wine before drinking it. However, the idea that Ivy could, in some way, purify alcohol persisted for centuries and led to Ivy wood being used for filtering wines and spirits. Many English pubs used to have the sign of an Ivy bush over their door to indicate the excellence of the liquor supplied within. 

As with Mistletoe and Holly, Ivy is linked with both Christmas and romance. Greek priests presented a wreath of Ivy to newlyweds as it was regarded as a symbol of fidelity. The custom of decorating houses and churches with Ivy at Christmas was forbidden by one of the early Councils of the Church, on account of its pagan associations, but the custom still remains. Bringing Ivy into the house may have some real benefits as it does help to purify the air by absorbing carbon monoxide and other nasty stuff. But it's not such a good idea if there are pets or small children around due to its toxicity.

The plant lives to a great age, its stems become woody and often attain a considerable size – Ivy trunks of a foot in diameter are often to be seen where the plant has for many years climbed undisturbed over rocks and ruins. Near where I live, a hazel tree has been bent over into a natural arch by the weight of Ivy that now covers it in something akin to Celtic knotwork.

Ivy is a symbol of fertility and women often used to carry Ivy leaves to aid fertility and general good luck. Wands entwined with Ivy were used in the worship of Bacchus, and were used in nature and fertility rites.

The Ivy is considered to be feminine and the Holly as masculine and tradition has it that, if both and brought into the house at Christmas, it will bring peace in the home for the following year. 

So now you know how to decorate your house this year.

End of May ramblings

Just a couple more days and we're into June and well and truly into Summer. The weather is a mixed bag at the moment but there are more good days than bad and there's been plenty of sunshine. Sadly there's also been a fair bit of wind from the north which has kept temperatures down but I have no complaints. It's good walking weather and it's a joy to feel solid ground under my shoes instead of mud halfway up my wellies. 

The Daffodils are gone and the Bluebells are going over but the meadows are full of daisies and buttercups. And the Holly trees are in flower. I wonder how many people even know that Holly has a flower? Well it does and the ovary at the centre will become the bright red berries in the Autumn.

The Hawthorn trees are in bloom ranging from white to pink in blossom and, like the Holly, each flower will become a bright red Haw berry in due course.

And the Ash trees are producing their seed pods, known as Ash Keys. These are edible and best picked and pickled while they are this young. There's a good recipe here.

Nature's bounty. It just gets better and better from this point on.

Leaf of the Day - Day 30

On the final day of November, and with Christmas rapidly approaching, the Holly, the Ivy and the Mistletoe are bursting with berries. It seemed appropriate to give them a platform today. 

And I thought I'd include this little oddity too - a variegated Holly leaf with only one spike, bless it.

I wrote a lot more about Holly here, Ivy here and Mistletoe here.

 

Rowan tree, red thread

Rowan tree, red thread,

Hold the witches all in dread.

It's possible you might just recognise those lines as the chorus of a song by Steelye Span called The Twelve Witches. The song is based on a traditional counting tune (like Ten Green Bottles or Ten Little Indians) but catalogues the particular powers of a coven of twelve witches. 

The chorus then describes a traditional form protection against them - making a cross from rowan twigs, wrapping it in red thread and hanging it over the door.The emphasis on the colour red and the wood of the rowan itself perhaps comes from the fact that these trees, with their distinctive red berries, had long been associated with agriculture. Trees like the rowan – along with holly, elder and hawthorn – all came to be a common feature in the landscape due to the process of clearing the land for cultivation. It’s notable that all of these trees bear red fruits except the elder, although it does produce a dark purple berry that gives up a red juice.

Top to bottom: Elder, Holly, Hawthorn (haws), and Rowan Berries.

There are many rites and rituals in paganism that involve the rowan, mostly centred around the time of Beltane (May Day). If you want to read a lot more on the subject, click here.

Rowan berries are edible although, as you'll know if you've ever tried eating one off the tree, they are very bitter and astringent - think cranberries turned up to 11. Or 111. However, that doesn't seem to worry the birds who will soon strip a tree clean. Which is a real shame because the berries, if given an extended period of cold weather and several hard frosts, eventually become quite palatable. However, you can still use them as an ingredient in hedgerow jams and jellies by pairing them with super sweet fruits like blackberries, strawberries and damsons. Using a limited amount just takes the edge off the sweetness, which makes it a nice accompaniment for strong meats like venison or lamb. The Vikings certainly rated them very highly and surviving recipes show that they ate them with game.

Or do what I do and make a rowan berry schnapps. I got the recipe from the Forager Chef blog and it's simplicity itself. In preparation, gather in a good pile of ripe berries and keep them in the freezer for a month or so. 

Then you get a half litre of vodka - a cheap one will do - and mix in half a pound of sugar and a good handful (10pz) of rowanberries. Put the mix into sealed bottes or jars and leave for a couple of months. Then strain through muslin and drink.

 As the site says, 'The maceration seems to draw out the flavor of the rowanberries, without the bitter, tannic quality. The colour is a beautifully pale orange that reminded me a bit of rosewater. The fruity taste of the berries, typically obscured by bitterness, comes through in the finished product, and there’s noticeable aromas of grapefruit and orange peel.'

Definitely worth a try and a nice alternative to sloe gin at Christmas.  

Mistletoe and Kissing Balls (snigger)

My favourite fact about Mistletoe is that the name derives from the old English tān, meaning ‘twig’ and the Germanic base mix, which means ‘dung’. So it literally means 'shitty twig’. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests this may be because ‘the plant is propagated in the excrement of birds’. 

Almost everyone associates Mistletoe (Viscum album) with Christmas and cheeky kisses. However, that's a fairly modern tradition and only came about when the Christian church absorbed many pre-existing traditions and practices. Our relationship with the plant goes back much, much further ...

It was a hugely important plant, associated with fertility and healing by the Celts, the Norse peoples and the Anglo Saxons. Because Mistletoe grows on tree branches without being connected to the earth, the belief was that the plant was magical and sustained by the Gods. Any tree that hosted the plant was held as sacred. 

If the ancients found it growing on an oak, their most revered and holy tree, it was seen as being of particular significance. The belief was that the plant would absorb the host tree’s essence, which is sort of accurate, as Mistletoe is actually a parasite. 

In this situation, Mistletoe was harvested in accordance with strict ceremony. The event took place on the sixth night of the new moon after the Winter Solstice and the plant was treated with incredible reverence and care. The Mistletoe was cut using a golden sickle and a cloth was held below the tree by other members of the order to catch it - the plant was never allowed to touch the ground. The Druid would then divide the branches into many sprigs and distribute them to the people who hung them over doorways as protection against thunder, lightning and other evils. It was considered to be so magical that valuable livestock were sacrificed to the sun god, to thank him for the gift - although slaughter was common around this time to ensure meat for the Winter and because feeding livestock in the colder months was expensive. 

For centuries it was known as 'All-Heal' because its leaves and berries were used not only to provide protection from evil, but to strengthen the body against poisons and 'ill humours'. This is somewhat odd as the berries are poisonous to humans. However, birds find them very tasty - especially the Mistle Thrush, which takes its name from this very reason. The berries are quite sticky and adhere to their beaks. Therefore, when they try to get them off by rubbing against trees branches, the seed is spread and a new host is found. 

 

Mistletoe is mostly found on apple trees but it will grow on many other species. I spotted these clusters recently in nearby High Wycombe (I was a passenger in a car at the time).

And, while out walking last month, I found a fairly established Mistletoe growing off a wild Dog Rose. Most of the berries were still green at the time but I revisited the site a few days ago and all of the berries are now white. 

 

Decorating the house with evergreens like Holly (see here), Ivy (here) and Mistletoe is a Winter tradition of long-standing. Some of the plants have a significance of their own (such as the mistletoe being associated with love), but overall, evergreen plants were thought to bring good luck as they remain green through the cold months, carrying the spirit of Spring and Summer. It is interesting to note that Mistletoe was excluded from church decorations, probably due to its pagan and magical associations. This ancient ban on mistletoe is still widely observed even today. 

And yet, Mistletoe was seen as a plant of peace and love. There are all sorts of theories about why we kiss under the Mistletoe but one is that, if enemies met by chance under a tree with Mistletoe on it, they would lay down their arms and maintain a truce until the next day. A second theory links the practice to Anglo-Saxon legend and to Freya, goddess of love, beauty and fertility. If a couple in love exchanged a kiss under the Mistletoe, it was interpreted as a promise to marry, as well as a prediction of happiness and long life. 

By Tudor times, there was a  tradition of hanging a 'Kissing Bough' - a sphere made from various types of evergreen including Mistletoe - over the doorway to greet guests. But then the Victorians took things up a level with their 'Kissing Balls', many of which were incredibly elaborate. And the parties they held under them were often a bit saucy. Both the gentry and paupers alike used the tradition to go a little further than an innocent kiss and 'gambols' were commonplace.

And so were Summer children.

As a footnote I have to include a few images I stumbled across online for Christmas-themed novelty goods. Do people really not know the difference between Mistletoe and Holly?

I strongly suspect that some of these items are made in the Far East where they're still getting the hang of the Western Christmas tradition. As you probably know, for some unknown reason, Christmas Day for the Japanese means eating out at a KFC. Do they think that Colonel Sanders is Santa? 

And there is a story - most likely urban myth - that at the turn of the Millennium, a Japanese retail outlet had a window display depicting Santa nailed to a cross.

Ah, the dangers of trying to assimilate the traditions and beliefs of other cultures without fully understanding them ...

 

Ogham - the Tree Alphabet

A few days ago (here) I mentioned the ancient Celtic Tree Alphabet - Ogham. What it demonstrates is how important trees were to our ancestors. 

The Celts were not a single nation or ethnic group. 'Celt' is a modern umbrella term, first used in 1707 in the writings of Edward Lhuyd, to describe the various individual tribes across Western Europe that shared the Celtic languages. In the UK, two branches of the language existed - the Goidelic branch (Scots, Irish, Manx) and Brythonic (Welsh, Cornish and the now extinct Cumbric). But neither branch had a fully-formed written language until they adopted the alphabet we know today. However, they did have Ogham, an ancient writing form that consisted of straight lines that could be scratched into stones and wood to mark the names of notable individuals, deities or places. Most commonly it appears to have been used to mark the boundaries of a person's territory. 

It could also be spelled out on the fingers, making it a common language that allowed communication between tribes. It may even have acted as a bridge between countries - in Shetland, Ogham has been found representing Norse words such as dattur (daughter) and krosk (cross) and, in Killaloe, County Clare, a particularly fascinating stone has a commemoration from c.1100 dedicated to a Scandinavian settler, Torgrim, which is written in Norse runes and then replicated in Ogham.

Ogham originally consisted of 20 characters and every letter relates to a native tree or plant. The 20 letters (feda) were split into 4 groups (aicme), with each aicme named after the first tree in that group: Beith, Huath, Muin, and Ailm. Five additional feda called Forfeda were introduced several centuries after the peak of Ogham usage to represent sounds felt to be missing from the original alphabet.

First Aicme (Beith) - Right side strokes

Beith (Birch)

Luis (Rowan)

Fearn (Alder)

Sail (Willow)

Nion (Ash)

Second Aicme (Huath) - Left side strokes

Huath (Hawthorn)

Dair (Oak)

Tinne (Holly)

Coll (Hazel)

Quert/Ceirt (Apple)

Third Aicme (Muin) - Across strokes

Muin (Blackberry)

Gort (Ivy)

Ngeadal (Broom)

Straif (Blackthorn

Ruis (Elder)

Fourth Aicme (Ailme) - Notches (Vowels)

Ailm (Silver Fir)

Onn (Gorse)

Ur (Heather)

Eadhadh (Aspen)

Iodhadh (yew)

Fifth Aicme (Forfeda) - Later additions

Eabhadh (White Poplar)

Oir (Spindle)

Uilleann (Honeysuckle)

Phin (Gooseberry)

Eamhancholl (Witch Hazel)

Here's my name - Stevyn Colgan - written in Ogham (note that there's no 'V' or 'Y' so the closest Ogham equivalents are 'F' and 'I'). It's read from bottom to top,

If you'd like to see your name in Ogham you can use this online transliterator here.

Evidence shows that Ogham was in use in the British Isles as early as the 4th century, long before the arrival of the Latin alphabet. There are around 400 surviving inscriptions on stone monuments throughout the UK and Ireland, mostly consisting of personal names.

This is one of the Dunloe Ogham Stones in Beaufort, County Kerry (Photo: Robert Linsdell) 

The ancients were fascinated with the natural world and trees were a hugely important part of their everyday lives. So it's no surprise that they inspired the creation of an entire early alphabet.

And what a wonderful thing that is.