Adder's Tongue

Ophioglossum Vulgatum

Adder's Tongue, is named after the poisonous snake that its long stamen is thought to resemble. It therefore has a reputation (totally and utterly undeserved) for curing the effects of snake bites.

What's known as Sympathetic Magic is to blame. Back in the days when the local surgeon was your barber and dentist too, people believed that when a plant, or a bit of it, looked like something, in this case a snake, it was nature's way of telling us that said plant was likely to be a cure for any ailment caused by the thing it looked like. As with Adder's Tongue, often this wasn't the case at all.

An adder's bite is very painful and dangerous. It can even kill you. First there will be a horrible pain where the snake bit you. Then the wound will swell and shortly afterwards you get nauseous and start throwing up. You can get diarrhoea and itchy lumps on your skin. Your lips might swell and so might your tongue, your gums and your throat, which will cause breathing difficulties and make you feel dizzy and faint. In the end it causes an irregular heartbeat. So, if an adder bites you, visit a doctor immediately and don't even think about trying to find any Adder's Tongue!

Note though, that it was used by ancient herbalists as a cooling poultice for burns, bruises and nose bleeds and old Culpepper suggests it for that too.

The word adder comes from the PIE word for snake: ‘netr’. This became ‘naedre’ in Old English and turned into adder in the 14th century.

Tongue goes back to the Gothic word ‘tuggô’, ‘tunge’ in Old English and again very similar to the word for ‘tongue’ in other Northern European languages (tong in Dutch, tunga in Swedish, Zunge in German, tunge in Danish).

The word Ophioglosssum means snake tongue in Latin, where the word glossum comes to Latin via the Greek word for tongue: ‘glossa’. The word ‘ophio’ means snake, but only when used in combination with other words.

This newsletter is NOT a field guide for flower identification. It’s often difficult to tell the difference between harmless plants and poisonous plants and some flowers are rare and protected by law, so, NEVER pick or use any plants or flowers if you’re not sure about them.

illustrations and text ©Chantal Bourgonje