Description

Bellis perennis (I like the botanical name so much more than any other) is a perennial that grows from short rhizomes bit it is the flower that we grow it for as gardeners. The flower comes in the second year, just after Summer when there have been a few cool days. Those in the garden centres now have been induced with a little artificial cooling.

The old name for English Daisies is ‘Bruisewort’. The ‘wort’ part of many herb names that you see is from the old language and means just ‘plant’. Bruisewort, is then a plant that excels at healing bruises. Our names for it – ‘Common Daisy’ or ‘English Daisy’ don’t sound nearly as good. Bellum is also Latin for ‘war’, so it could have gotten its botanic name from the Romans.

British history tells us that, during the invasion of Britain, the Roman army would send out slaves to harvest Bruisewort by the tonne (or whatever measurement they used back then). Injured soldiers would be treated with Bruisewort for many of their injuries, some of which, often coming from swords, were considerable. English daisies were brought to Australia during the British invasion and subsequent colonisation. There are many members of the Daisy family growing in natively Australia, so Bellis perennis didnýt have any difficulty adjusting – I’m surprised that it isn’t far more ‘weedy’ than it is.

Medicinal use

Wounds of all sorts can benefit from Bellis, I wonder if Achilles had found some Bruisewort during the battle of Troy, would he have used it instead of Yarrow. Would the botanic name for Yarrow, Achillea, then be applied to this daisy?

In addition to wounds, its astringent juice can be used to tighten up lax blood vessels as in the cases of varicose veins and hemorrhoids . In the same manner it can be used for red noses from either Acne Rosacea or long term overindulgence in alcohol (especially Port). Eczema also has been treated with Bellis.

Bellis has been used for relieving the pain of arthritis and gout, interestingly, both are aggravated by drinking Port! Its mild astringency makes it ideal for use in eye lotions and skin toners.

Coughs and colds are another group of ailments benefitted by Bellis perennis. The saponins in it are slightly irritating to the stomach and cause expectoration from the upper respiratory tract through a reflex action via a shared nerve.

Burns can benefit from the application of Bellis juice and slow to heal external ulcers also improve with its application.

Preparing and using

To use Bellis as an herb, we crush its leaves and apply the juice directly to wounds. It excels at treating bruises (as its old name suggests – for that, a poultice of the crushed plant works nicely. Bellis, as a bruise healer, has several big advantages over the other herb commonly used for that type of injury – Arnica. First, Bellis is easy to grow here in South Oz and pretty well everywhere else in the world apparently. I don’t know of anybody growing Arnica in any of my Australian circles of friends. The second benefit that Bellis has for us is that it can be applied directly to open wounds. That’s a great advantage because Arnica is toxic if it gets into the bloodstream or is digested in any but Homeopathic doses.

You can use any part of a Bellis perennis plant herbally but the most common parts used are the leaves and flowers. I’m using the juice from the leaves at the moment, as the flowers have just started and I want to enjoy them for a little while – they’re be plenty of them in a while. As the season progresses, I’ll experiment with making a succus and tincture so that I can store it for a while and I want to make a Bellis salve and a Bellis flower essence too . Of course, I’ll post about each of those as I make and try them.

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Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden

We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are –

Garden Herbs

Wild Herbs

Making Remedies

Mushroom medicine

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