Species: Wood Avens or Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum)

Family: Roses (ROSACEAE)

Category: Flowering Plants

Location: NW

A. Flowering Plants

More extensive information on flowering plants can be found in a separate blog post.

B. Roses (ROSACEAE)

The Rose family gives us many of our most commercially important fruits, such as the Prunus species. They have alternate leaves and 5-petalled flowers.

C. Wood Avens or Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum)

Flowering from May, the yellow flowers of this tough native plant are a familiar sight in gardens nowadays. The root is a powerful medicine with a wide range of claimed uses, although the only notable one is that chewing it obscures bad breath. The dried roots were put in linen drawers to repel moths. The crushed root was used to treat diarrhoea, and if steeped in boiling water relieves sore throats.

Images

Wood Avens or Herb Bennet

Flowering from May, the yellow flowers of Wood Avens or Herb Bennet are a familiar sight in gardens nowadays.

Wood Avens or Herb Bennet

The root of Wood Avens is a powerful medicine with a wide range of claimed uses, although the only notable one is that chewing it obscures bad breath.

Wood Avens or Herb Bennet

Flowering from May, the yellow flowers of this tough, invasive native plant are a familiar sight in gardens nowadays.