Speedwell

Veronica officinalis

Gypsyweed Physic Root Speedwell Parts used Uses Habitat and cultivation Constituents Applications Multipurpose springtime tincture

Speedwell - small perennial herb 6 in to 12 in (15 cm to 30 cm) high with a semi-climbing stem, adorned with dentate, oval flowers and a short petiole. The small flowers are a light blue with darker blue stripes, and grow in lateral clusters.

Although the flowers are easily ignored when larger and showier plants are nearby, the small pale blue, lavender, and white blooms of speedwell are a common summer sight in woods. Herbalists once employed speedwell in the treatment of a wide variety of ills. In modem herbal medicine, speedwell tea, brewed from the dried flowering plant, sometimes serves as a cough remedy or as a lotion for irritated or infected skin. The somewhat bitter and astringent taste and tea like smell of speedwell led to its use as a tea substitute in 19th-century France, where it was called the d'Europe, or "Europe tea." The French still use this term as a name for speedwell.

The name speedwell comes from an old meaning of the word speed, "thrive." The scientific term Veronica goes back some 500 years and is apparently connected with the name of the legendary Veronica, who is said to have wiped the face of Jesus as He went to Calvary. It is possible that the genus Veronica was named after her because the flowers supposedly resemble the markings left on the cloth with which she wiped Jesus' face.

PARTS USED

Whole plant.

USES

A tea prepared from the dried flowering plant serves as a diuretic and expectorant (to bring up phlegm), but pharmacologists question the effectiveness of both these uses. They also doubt that the tea has value as a lotion for skin infections and irritations.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, speedwell is found from Newfoundland to Ontario, south to North Carolina and Tennessee, and west to Wisconsin.
Acid and moist grasslands, fallow land and the edge of moist, deciduous forests.

CONSTITUENTS

Speedwell contains organic acids, sugars, red pigment, flavonoids, bitter principle, resin, tannins.

APPLICATIONS

Many people eat speedwell raw in a salad in early spring, or added to soup. In a decoction: 1 flowering stem or 1/10 oz (3 g) in 1 cup (250 ml) water helps to treat edema, digestive discomfort and, over the long term, chronic skin disorders. These can also be treated with external lotions: 2/3 oz (20 g) of the whole plant in 1 cup (250 ml) boiling water and strained in a compress applied to the area to be treated.

MULTIPURPOSE SPRINGTIME TINCTURE

• 1 cup (250 ml) slightly acidic white wine
• 1 3/4 oz (50 g) whole, fresh speedwell (at the beginning of summer)

Chop speedwell in a food processor. Combine with the wine. Let stand for 1 month, shaking the container every 2 or 3 days. Strain. Consume over the course of a year. In the event of sluggish digestion, intestinal insufficiency or eczema, take 1 t (5 ml) before each meal.