A5 Botanical Prints

Nettle has been eaten, drunk and used medicinally across Britain since the Iron Age; it is rich in iron, calcium and vitamins, and was gathered every spring as one of the first green things available after winter.

Elder was considered one of the most protected trees in the British folk tradition; you asked permission before cutting it, and to fell one without doing so was thought to bring the house bad luck. The elderflower itself has long been used for its gentle diaphoretic properties, drunk as a tea to break a fever.

Heather has marked this landscape since before it was farmed; white heather, rare enough to find by chance, was considered lucky across the British Isles - a sprig carried for protection, pressed into letters, tucked into wedding bouquets.