{"id":32169,"date":"2025-08-18T13:49:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/?p=32169"},"modified":"2025-08-18T13:49:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:49:50","slug":"notes-from-the-apothecary-bistort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2025\/08\/18\/notes-from-the-apothecary-bistort\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the Apothecary: Bistort"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Multiple<\/p>\n

Until the end of August, possibly a little beyond depending on the weather, you may find the bristly, bottlebrush-like flowers of bistort growing everywhere from meadows to roadside hedgerows and verges. Although the bistort we have in the UK and that found in the US are slightly different, they\u2019re all part of the same family: Polygonaceae, under the genus Bistorta<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here in the UK, I always think of the flower as little pink or purple cleaning brushes. The North American variant tends to be a bit paler and fluffier looking \u2014 I hope I get to see some with my own eyes someday.<\/p>\n

The Kitchen Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Wildlife Trust reports that a local name in the North of England for bistort is Pudding Dock.<\/a> A cookware site goes into a bit more detail\"A on this. A cake called Easter-Ledge Pudding or Dock Pudding was, apparently, an Easter\/Lent dish served in Yorkshire (my local area), the Lake District, and Cumbria. The name \u201cpudding\u201d here shouldn\u2019t be taken to mean a sweet dish. In fact, the leaves of bistort are cooked with onions, eggs, butter, barley, and oats. Sounds filling!<\/p>\n

During Easter-tide, it would be eaten with lamb and with bacon at other times. Here’s a recipe<\/a> if you want to have a go \u2014 not tested by me, so I take no responsibility for the outcome.<\/p>\n

There are numerous other ways to eat and enjoy bistort. Anecdotal evidence suggests the rhizomes (the part below the ground) work as a root vegetable and the leaves can be used in salads or as cooked greens. For foragers, the striking flowers make it easy to pick out from other plants with similar leaves that could be toxic. However, as always, never ever eat anything you pick in the wild without verification from an expert.<\/p>\n

First Nations peoples across North America have used bistort as a medicine and food source.<\/p>\n

The Apothecary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs Grieves states in her Modern Herbal (1931) that the most important part of bistort is the root stock, which should be gathered and dried in March just as the leaves of the plant start to appear. She notes that the name means \u201ctwice twisted,\u201d and another common name for the plant is the slightly ominous Twice Writhen. These names come from the twisty rhizomes.<\/p>\n

The roots are highly astringent and \u201cstyptic,\u201d which means they should slow bleeding. A more modern term would be antihemorrhagic.<\/p>\n

Mrs Grieves also states the herb is good for treating digestive concerns like diarrhoea and dysentery, and could be a useful remedy for haemorrhoids.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Culpeper, in his Complete Herbal (1650s), says another common name for bistort is snakeweed. He stated that the herb had a cold and dry action, language reminiscent of that used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), although cold actions are often not desirable.<\/p>\n

He recommended the leaves and roots as a remedy for insect bites, and recommended mixing the paste of the root with honey for tooth pain.<\/p>\n

The Witch\u2019s Kitchen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bistort has been used by multiple cultures across the world for a variety of magical uses.<\/p>\n

In his Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs<\/em>, Scott Cunningham stated that bistort was also known as dragonwort, a truly evocative name. He associated the plant with Saturn (as did Culpeper) and the element of Earth, and stated that magical uses included:<\/p>\n