Plants of faeries

Plants of great power against and among Faeries are :

By Cristina McAllister

Alder

Protected by water spirits

Apple

To ensure good harvests, leave the last apple of your crop for the Apple-Tree-Man.

Ash

Druids wands were made of ash twigs. It also has healing properties. Weak-limbed children were passed through split ash trees which were then bound up. If the tree grew straight, the child would as well. Also may be used as a substitute for Rowan.

Birch

If the spirit of the birch tree (The One With the White Hand) touches a head it leaves a white mark and the person turns insane. If it touches a heart, the person will die.

Blackthorn

Guarded by the Lunantishee.

Bluebell

One who hears a bluebell ring will soon die. A field of bluebells is especially dangerous, as it is intricately interwoven with faerie enchantments.

Cowslips

These are loved and protected by the faeries. They help one to find hidden faerie gold.

Elder

Sometimes is a witch disguised as a tree. Never lay a baby in an elderwood cradle or the faeries will pinch them so they bruise. Burning elder wood is dangerous since it invites the Devil.

Four-leaf clover

It has the power to break fairy spells and, if carried or work in one’s hat, allows one to see invisible fairies.

        “I’ll seek a four-leaved clover
        In all the fairy dells,
        And if I find the charmed leaf,
        Oh, how I’ll weave my spells!”

Fern

In Cornwall, the pixies are especially fond of the fern. One tale recounts how a young woman accidently sat on a fern, and instantly a fairy man appeared and forced her to promise to watch over his fairy son, by having her kiss the fern and recite: “For a year and a day I promise to stay.” For that time period she was an inhabitant of fairyland.

Foxglove

Name is derived from “Little Folks’ Glove”. Also called the `thimble of the Fairy old women’, Fairy-bell in Ireland, Fairy-fingers in Durham and N. Yorkshire, Fairy-glove in Ireland and Dorcester, Fairies’ petticoats in Cheshire, Fairy-thimbles in Cambridge and Norfolk). Florets are worn by faeries as hats and gloves.  Supposedly, if a child was shot with elf-shot, the juice of twelve leaves of foxgloves was supposed to cure the ailment (Lady Wilde, p. 203).

Hazel

Celtic legend says it is the receptacle of knowledge; the hazelnut is a symbol of fertility in England.

Mushroom

Marks the boundaries of faerie rings.

Pansies

The flower that was used as a love potion by Oberon, a faerie king thought to have been invented by Shakespeare.

Primroses

Make the invisible visible. Wearing primroses in the proper number is one key into fairyland. A German legend tells how a little girl found a doorway covered in flowers, and touching it with a primrose opened it up, leading into an enchanted castle.. The wrong number means certain doom.

Ragwort

Used as makeshift horses by the faerie.

Rowan

Protects against bad spirits. Used in butter churns so that the butter would not be overlooked by faeries. Bewitched horses may be controlled by a rowan whip. Druids used rowan wood for fires with which they called up spirits whom could be forced to answer questions when rowanberries were spread over the flayed hides of bulls.

St. John’s Wort

Achlasan Challumchile (Hypericumpulcrum). A healing herb, this can be used to break fairy spells and to cure illness caused by fairy darts. Ward off fevers, and keep the Fairies from taking people away in their sleep.On the Isle of Man, however, the plant is sacred to fairies, and one should avoid stepping on it lest one be pixy-led by the offended fairies.

Toadstools

Some have poisonous hallucinogenic properties. The Vikings ate it and gain their reputations as berkerkers. In Celtic lore, they are among the food of the gods, as with many red plants. Some toadstools associated with the faerie are Fly Agaric, Yellow Fairy Club, Slender Elf Cap, Dune Pixie-Hood, and Dryad’s Saddle.

Trailing Pearlwort     

Mothan (Sagina procumbens). Protects its possessor from fire and the attacks of the Fairy women.

Whitethorn

The tree is sacred to the Aos Sí – (the fairy folk of Ireland.)

Wild Thyme

Part of a recipe for a brew to make one see the faeries. The tops of the Wild Thyme must be gathered near the side of a faerie hill.

Willow

At night they uproot themselves and stalk travelers, muttering at them.

Ragwort, Cabbage-stalks, blades of grass, straw: All these were used by the diminutive fairies for impromtu transportation, following the manner of a witch on her broom. The following poem from “The Witch of Fife” illustrates the point:

        “The first leet night, quhan the new moon set,
          Quhan all was douffe and mirk,
        We saddled our naigis wi’ the moon-fern leif,
          And rode fra Kilmerrin kirk.

        Some horses were of the brume-cow framit,
          And some of the greine bay tree;
        But mine was made of ane humloke schaw,
          And a stour stallion was he.”