Historical Names of Herbs

Tongue of dog? Blood of goose? Do you really think witches cut out tongues of dogs? Or take blood from geese? Umm. No! They were just pseudonym names for the herbs to keep them secret. So here's a list that I've been compiling for a while....(feel free to add your own, but at some point please share your findings with others....Thank you!!!!!)

Here are some old time names for herbs:

Adders tongue: dogstooth violet
A titan's blood: wild lettuce
A lion's hairs: tongue of a turnip (i.e., The leaves of the taproot)
A man's bile: turnip sap
A pig's tail: leopard's bane
A hawk's heart: heart of wormwood
An eagle: wild garlic
Ass's foot or bull's foot: coltsfoot
Blood: eldersap or another tree sap
Blood of hephaistos: wormwood
Burning bush: white dittany
Bread and cheese tree: hawthorne
Blood from a head: lupine
Bird's eye: germander speedwell
Blood of aries: germander speedwell
Blood of a goose: a mulberry tree's milk
Bloodwort: yarrow
Blood of hestia: camomile
Blood of an eye: tamarisk gall
Blood from a shoulder: bear's vreach
Bat's wings: holly
Black sampson: echinacea
Bull's blood or seed of horus: horehound
Bear's foot: lady's mantle
Calf's smout: snapdragon
Cat's foot: canada snake root and/or ground ivy
Candelmas maiden: snowdrop
Capon's tail: valerian
Christ's ladder: centaury
Cheeses: marsh mallow
Chocolate flower: wild geranium
Christ's eye: vervain sage
Clear-eye: clary sage
Click: goosegrass
Cucumber tree: magnolia
Clot: great mullein
Corpse plant: indian pipe.
Crowdy kit: figwort
Cuddy's lungs: great mullien
Crow foot: cranesbill
Cuckoo's bread: common plantain
Clear eye: clary sage
Crow's foot: wild geranium
Devils dung: asafoetida
Dragon's blood: calamus
Dog's mouth: snap dragon
Daphne: laurel/bay
Devil's plaything: yarrow
Dove's foot: wild geranium
Dew of the sea: rosemary
Dragon wort: bistort
Earth smoke: fumitory
Eye of christ: germander speedwell
Elfs wort: elecampane
Enchanter's plant: vervain
Englishan's foot: common plantain
Erba santa maria: spearmint
Everlasting friendship: goosegrass
Eye of the day: common daisy
Eye of the star: horehound
Eye root: goldenseal
Eyes: aster, daisy, eyebright
Frog's foot: bulbous buttercup
From the loins: camomile
Fat from a head: spurge
Fairy smoke: indian pipe
Felon herb: mugwort
From the belly: earth-apple
From the foot: houseleek
Five fingers: cinquefoil
Fox's clote: burdock
Graveyard dust: mullein
Goat's foot: ash weed
God's hair: hart's tongue fern
Golden star: avens
Gosling wing: goosegrass
Great ox-eye:ox eye daisy
Hairs of a hamadryas baboon: dill seed
Hair of venus: maidenhair fern
Hag's taper: great mullein
Hagthorn: hawthorn
Hare's beard: great mullein
Herb of grace: vervain
Hind's tongue: hart's tongue fern
Holy herb: yerba santa
Holy rope: hemp agrimony
Hook and arn: yerba santa
Horse tongue: hart's tongue fern
Horse hoof: coltsfoot
Hundred eyes: periwinkle
Innocense: bluets
Jacob's staff: great mullein
Joy of the mountain: marjoram
Jupiter's staff: great mullein
King's crown: black haw
Knight's milfoil: yarrow
Kronos' blood: of cedar
Lady's glove: foxglove aka witches' gloves
Lion's tooth: dandelion aka priest's crown
Lad's love: southernwood
Lamb's ears: betony
Little dragon: tarragon
Love in idleness: pansy
Love leaves: burdock
Lovelies bleeding: amaranth or anemone
Love man: goosegrass
Love parsley : lovage
Love root: orris root
Man's health: ginseng
Maiden's ruin: southernwood
Master of the woods: woodruff
May: black haw
May lily: lily of the valley
May rose: black haw
Maypops: passion flower
Mistress of the night: tuberose
Mutton chops: goosegrass
Nose bleed: yarrow
Old-maid's-nightcap : wild geranium
Old man's flannel: great mullein
Old man's pepper: yarrow
Oliver: loive
Password: primrose
Pucha-pat: patchouli
Peter's staff: great mullein
Priest's crown: dandelion leaves
Poor man's treacle: garlic
Queen of the night: vanilla cactus
Queen of the meadow: meadowsweet
Ram's head: american valerian
Red cockscomb: amaranth
Ring-o-bells: bluebells
Robin-run-in- the-grass: goosegrass
Semen of helios: white hellebore
Semen of herakles: mustard-rocket
Semen of hermes: dill
Semen of hephaistos: this is fleabane
Semen of ammon: houseleek
Semen of ares: clover
Seed of horus: horehound
Sparrow's tongue: knotweed
Soapwort: comfrey or daisy
Shepherd's heart: shepherd's purse
Swine's snout: dandelion leaves
Shameface:wild geranium
See bright: clary sage
Scaldhead: blackberry
Seven year's love: yarrow
Silver bells: black haw
Sorcerer's violet: periwinkle
St. John's herb: hemp agrimony. (this is not st. John's wort)
St john's plant: mugwort
Star flower: borage
Star of the earth: aavens
Starweed: chickweed
Sweethearts: goosegrass
Tarragon:mugwort
Tartar root: ginseng
Thousand weed: yarrow
Thunder plant: house leek
Tanner's bark: common oak
Toad: toadflax
Torches: great mullein
Tongue of dog: houndstongue
Tears of a manadryas baboon: dill juice
Unicorn root: ague root
Unicorn's horn: false unicorn: helonias dioica
Unicorn horn: true unicorn root
Wax dolls: fumitory
Weazel snout: yellow dead nettles/ yellow archangel
White: ox-eye daisy
White wood: white cinnamon
Witch's asprin: white willow/willow bark
Witch's brier: brier hips
Weasel snout: yellow archangel
Wolf foot: bugle weed
Wolf claw: club moss
Wolfs milk:euphorbia
Weed: ox-eye daisy
White man's foot: common plantain



My Stores: www.mystimornin.ecrater.com
My Group: WystirasHerbalGarden@groups.msn.com

Used with permission..she's my friend and we share quite often

Post edited by: ShaamAnsu, at: 2008/04/17 13:50

Another good list of alternate names for herbs is available in Catherine Yronwode's excellent book "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic" (ISBN 0-9719612-0-4.) It also gives magickal uses for the many herbs they list.

Sounds like it right up my alley. LOL. I might have to check that one out.