Ground Ivy and “Nettles”*

WILHELM PELIKAN

Glechoma hederacea, ground ivy, alehoof, gill-over-the-ground:[e:agIm

]yvrdfoiwnu
W hen spring brings new
life to the fields, and the
wintry hold-up of life is
overcome, one of the first
spring plants, the first of all
the labiates to flower in dry
and sunny places where no
shade yet falls (hedges,
walls, roadsides and under
fruit trees), is the ground
ivy. From its creeping run
ners, forever taking root
anew, it sends up flower
shoots with blue-violet blos
soms. It is the first plant of spring to transform the cosmic
warmth given to the earth into warmth-filled plant nature. The
leaves are still rounded, with indentations around the margins,
corresponding to the formative forces of the watery element,
but they are permeated with a mild, aromatic warmth. The
foliage withstands the cold of winter. After the flowering peri
od, the plant creeps all over the ground with its runners; it
*Continued from foregoing issues of the Journal. Translation from the
German of the author’s Heilpflanzenkunde (Medical Botany); published
with the kind permission of the author and of the publishers, Philosophisch-
Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum / Dornach, Switzerland. Trans
lator: R. E. K. Meuss, F.I.L.
41
belongs to the earth. The flower whorls which turn towards the
light are drawn into the leaf axils. Leaf and flower impulses in
termingle. The plant belongs to central and northern Europe
and neighboring regions of Asia as far as Siberia. The taste,
aromatic, earthy and harshly bitter, reveals the presence of eth
eric oils, tannin and bitters.
The plant has been used to stimulate metabolism quite gen
erally, particularly in spring, for weakness of the bladder, con
gestion of liver and spleen, weakness of the digestive tract, and
insufficient blood formation; furthermore, it is effective for dis
eases of the respiratory organs with a tubercular basis, bron
chial asthma, scrofula, calculi and jaundice, application being
both internal and external; all this is very similar to the actions
of the other labiates we have been considering, especially those
mentioned last. There is therefore no need for further detail.

Galeopsis segetum (Galeopsis ochroleuca), downy hemp-nettle:

This plant belongs to the damp areas in western Europe and
grows on siliceous sandy rubble, i.e. crumbled, broken prim i
tive rock, a soil which on the one hand is completely mineral,
and on the other is permeated with air and sufficient moisture.
Spiky, and with elongated hemp-like leaves, even its hairy,
bristly appearance shows that the siliceous element is not only
in the soil in which it takes root (it flees from chalk), but also
plays a part internally in giving the plant its form. The “upper”
stories of the leaf nodes bear pesudo-whorls of very striking
large pale yellow flowers shaped like animal heads (gale-opsis
— weasel’s face). The ash of the downy hemp-nettle has a high
silica content (18 percent). Like the siliceous Teucrium, Gale-
opsis is a good remedy for diseases of the lung due to weakness
of the light metabolism in the organism; it is one of the compo
nents of the “Silica Teas” so successful in the treatm ent of cer
tain forms of phthisis. Its warming properties are gentle, and
the plant is only weakly aromatic.

42
Lam ium album, white dead-nettle:
This labiate may be found almost anywhere in the cooler
parts of Europe, very much like a weed, and shows only traces
of the warmth character of the family. Having a strong upward
growing trend in the leaf and stem region, it really does resem
ble the stinging nettle, only that the floral element combines
with the leaf rhythm, node following node, with pseudo-whorls
of many large white, wide-throated flowers. The flowering time
is from April to October, and occasional flowers may be found
even in winter. The sweet-scented, slimy-sweet, slightly harsh
dried flowers are an old remedy, enveloping, dissolving mucous,
relieving inflammation, its m ain sphere of action unfolding in
the kidney and female genital organs. Leucorrhea, hardening
of the uterus, lack of tone in the uterus, prem ature menses be
long to the sphere of action of the dead-nettle flower, as well as
strangury, retention of urine in old men, and inflammatory
processes involving the urinary passages. The dead-nettle is like
a faint echo of the fiery labiate motif, in a cool, damp earthy
m edium .

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