Cuckoo Pint aka Lords and Ladies

[bushcraftbob]

This lovely looking plant is all over the woods at the moment, I know its toxic but does anyone know of any uses for this plant at all?

I found a load of very young Cuckoo Pint leaves the other day, that looked a bit similar to young wild garlic shoots (and was also growing about 20 feet from proper wild garlic...!), just goes to show you have got to be super careful when gathering spring greens.

Jimbob

[wildranger]

You can produce a flour from the corms. They're located about 4 inches below the surface usually. You have to remove the root hairs and all traces of the stalk and then peel and clean them, then grate them into a bowl of water and keep changing the water over the course of several hours. Then you need to dry the starch in an oven and pulverise it into a fine flour. It's a lot of effort and I consider the process not to be worth it! There's a good article on the net which explains the process in detail - http://www.countrylovers.co.uk/wfs/arum.htm . I don't know of any other uses for the plant!

[Toddy]

It used to be used in the laundry, and the prepared starch was used like arrowroot, it was called Portland sago iimc. Supposedly good agin ringworm, but the fresh root juices will blister skin so definitely contra indicated nowadays.

cheers,
Toddy

[tinderbox]

but the fresh root juices will blister skin so definitely contra indicated nowadays.

That would cure the ringworm.

[Harvestman]

On the toxicity, The Big lebowski chewed some last year by mistake. Said his mouth was numb for about 40 minutes afterwards.

One to avoid in my opinion.

[Toddy]

That would cure the ringworm.

Effective wart and freckle remover too
We take for granted that the doctor will have a pill or potion to sort out most things, must have been different (and difficult) in the past.

cheers,
M

[tinderbox]

Good old fashioned zinc and castor oil cream always worked for me, just enough to stop the sweat moistening the skin, and relieve the itch. A sight more comfortable than killing the skin along with the infection.

[Toddy]

Coal tar shampoo; the real stuff that you can't get nowadays I'm told, rub it on thickly, put on cotton gloves or a bandage and sleep with it like that. Next morning wash it off and the beasties will be dead.
Tea tree oil, used the same way, is apparantly effective too.

Zinc oxide brings me out in a wet, itchy rash

I never actually gave a thought to why these things all worked.....does the zinc/oil suffocate the ringworm ? I think the teatree and coaltar literally poisons it, and what does the cuckoopint actually do that causes the skin to blister?

Reading required methinks

M

[tinderbox]

It could be suffocation. In my experience ring-worm forms in dimples that can be well aired, and athletes foot where the skin folds. Yuck!

[Toddy]

Sorry bushcraftbob we've taken your thread totally off topic.


I've been very fortunate and never succumbed to either ringworm or AF, but a lot of the children I went to school with seemed to have one or t'other on a pretty permanent basis

I still cringe when I see a kid scratching at the base of their hairline at the neck

You don't smell 'medicated' on people nowadays No coaltar, no friar's balsam, no camphor, etc.,

cheers,
M

[Steve M]

May also be misidentified Sorrel when young.

[Harvestman]

May also be misidentified Sorrel when young.

Exactly how a member on here came to be chewing on it...

[Steve M]

Here's a potential disaster waiting to happen.



Red Campion also looks a bit like Sorrel too, but that very distinctly lack the split at the base of the leaf.