During a very successful walking festival when I had cause to follow many of our wonderful mountain and coastal footpaths.  On one such walk I spotted two of the Islands insectivorous plants that grow in wet places throughout the Island. Butterwort – Lus y steep and Sundew – Lus ny graih. Both plants have sticky secretions on their leaves which attract small flies.  Once trapped the leaves curl up and the plant exudes a liquid that breaks down the soft parts of the fly which is then taken up by the plant.  The leaf opens up again, the dry husk of the fly blows away and the plant ‘rearms’ itself.  The name for Butterwort, Lus y steep is the same as the Manks name for Lesser spearwort.  This name comes from the fact that parts of the plant were used as a substitute for rennet to curdle the milk and to make what was known as Pinjane or Binjean. The name for Sundew translates as Herb of love, this refers to the tale that older ladies used to encourage the young girls to make a potion from sundew and give to a prospective husband in the belief that if the plant could catch a fly, the potion would be able to catch a husband!

Other coastal footpath plants that are giving us a myriad of colour at present are (white) Sea campion – Lus ny brooinyn hraie and English stone crop – Lus y vlayst,   (blue) Sheep’s bit scabious – Bossan gorrym and Milkwort – Bollan y chee,  ( yellow) Common bird’sfoot  – Biddee and Bog asphodel – Lus y Columb Keeilley, (red) Thrift – Kione jiarg and Wild thyme – Teem.

Down on the sandy areas above the shore can be found a good selection of plants, Sea spurrey, Rest harrow – Camraasagh, Sea plantain – Cabbag aalin, Buck’shorn plantain – Bossan Vreeshey, Sea beet – Beetys  and Scentless mayweed.

The road side hedges are wonderful at present and where the Highway Board hedge trimmers haven’t reached yet or where they don’t need to trim can be found a great number of plant species with most of them in flower, Alexanders (Cow parsley) – Ollyssyn, Bush vetch – Pishyr ny gabbil, Harebell – Mairane ferrish (fairies thimble), Hogweed – Farrain, Ribwort plantain – Slane-lus and Dog rose – Drughaig.  Dog rose is another plant that was part of Mr George Quayle’s wonderful stories, If you look at the sepals on the rose, these are left after the petals drop, there are five of them.  Two of them have ‘frilly’ edges, two of them have ‘clean’ edges and the last one has a ‘frill’ on one side.  The stories goes “ Mrs Rose had five sons and they all had beards. One day they got up and two of them decided to shave their beards off, two of them decided to keep them, and the last one didn’t know what to do, so he only shaved half his beard off!”

An interesting plant that will be appearing in a number of places, including gardens is the Mullein – Lus vooar ( big plant) this has large leaves that are covered in a white down, it grows tall similar to a Hollyhock or Foxglove and has large yellow flowers. It is one of these plants that appear for no apparent reason and its size makes it notable.

I can’t finish without mentioning that our national day, Tynwald Day, is on the 5th July, on that day most people will be wearing some Bollan bane (Mugwort) in their button hole, the reasons for the wearing of it are not fully known. In ancient times Bollan bane was believed  to have the power to protect you from evil influences in the same way as St John’s wort – Lus y choilg.   Bollan bane was used as a herb for nervousness and can be smoked and it was highly recommended for women’s complaints!!. I have Bollan bane growing in my garden but I often when walking to Tynwald Fayre pick a bit of St John’s wort from the hedge and wear it as well, just in case!!  


John Dog