Enchanter's Nightshade

Overview

Enchanter's nightshade is not a nightshade at all — it belongs to the willowherb family, not the Solanaceae — but it carries a name that places it immediately in a specific tradition. Circaea lutetiana: named for Circe, the witch-goddess of the Odyssey who transformed Odysseus's crew into pigs, who knew the properties of every herb, who lived on an island at the edge of the known world. The plant itself is modest: a woodland perennial, small white flowers, hooked seed-covered fruits that cling to clothing and fur, occupying the deep shade of deciduous woodland where little else grows. It has no dramatic toxicity, no psychoactive compounds of note. It is a plant of reputation entirely, of name and shadow, of the tradition that said some plants are simply of the night and the witch and the margin, regardless of their chemical inventory.

Botanical Notes

A perennial, 20–60cm, with broadly ovate, pointed, slightly hairy leaves in opposite pairs. Stems erect, branching, softly hairy. Flowers small (4–6mm), white, with two petals notched at the tip and two sepals, in elongating racemes from June to August. Fruit 3–4mm, club-shaped, covered in stiff hooked bristles, dispersed by animal fur and clothing. Found in deep shade in deciduous woodland, particularly on moist, fertile, calcareous soils throughout Europe and temperate Asia. Often forms dense colonies under beech, ash, and hazel. A closely related species, C. alpina, grows in mountain woodland. C. × intermedia is the hybrid between the two. The plant contains small amounts of tannins and flavonoids; no significant alkaloids or toxins have been identified.

Lore & History

The name Circaea appears in botanical literature from the sixteenth century — Conrad Gesner and Rembert Dodoens both used it, and it was firmly established by Linnaeus. The association with Circe was explicit and intentional: this was the plant of the witch, named for the witch, placed in the dark wood where the witch lives. Whether the name reflects an actual folkloric tradition of using the plant in witchcraft, or simply a humanist scholar's desire to give a shadowed woodland herb an appropriately shadowed name, is unknown. John Gerard called it 'Enchanter's Nightshade' in his 1597 Herball, noting the name was given 'by reason of the evil qualities of this plant.' He does not specify what those qualities are. In the folk magic tradition, the plant was used in protective and binding workings, placed at thresholds or buried under doorsteps — less for any inherent power than for the power of the name it carried.

Warnings