Hound's Tongue

Overview

Hound's tongue is a plant of disturbed ground and chalk downland, of roadsides and rabbit warrens, distinguished by its extraordinary smell — a persistent, oppressive odour of mice that intensifies in warm weather and clings to clothing for hours after contact. The leaves are long, soft, grey-green, and velvety, with precisely the texture of a dog's tongue, which gives the plant its name in every language that has named it: *Cynoglossum* from the Greek, *Hundszunge* in German, *langue de chien* in French. The smell and the name together give it an identity it carries without apology.

Botanical Notes

A biennial, 30–90cm, with a basal rosette in the first year and an erect, leafy flowering stem in the second. Leaves oblanceolate, grey-green, densely soft-hairy, the lower leaves stalked, upper clasping; all with an unpleasant mousy smell when bruised. Flowers small, dull reddish-purple, in coiling scorpioid cymes from May to August. Fruit a cluster of four nutlets covered in hooked barbs that attach readily to clothing and animal fur. Found on dry, disturbed ground, chalk and limestone grassland, coastal dunes, and rabbit-grazed areas throughout Europe. Contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (cynoglossine, heliosupine, and others) with hepatotoxic potential. A member of the borage family, many of whose species share the same alkaloid burden.

Lore & History

In English folk tradition, hound's tongue carried in the shoe — left shoe specifically, in some accounts — would prevent dogs from barking at you. This was a practical concern in a world of working dogs and unfenced yards, and the belief was widespread enough to appear in multiple herbals without being attributed to any single authority. Gerard listed it. Culpeper elaborated. Both were sceptical. The plant's association with dogs extended in other directions: it was used as a styptic for dog bites and as a wash for mange. In the language of the Doctrine of Signatures, the velvety tongue-like leaves implied its use for conditions of the mouth and throat — a gentler reading of the same feature that gave it its name. The mousy smell was considered a marker of Saturn's dominion, and Culpeper assigned it accordingly: a cold, heavy, binding plant, best used in moderation.

Warnings