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| What's in a buttercup? |
The other day, listening idly to the radio, I noted an item on bumble bees who self-medicate by visiting the nectar of sainfoin plants. Sainfoin, which translates as 'healthy hay' is a perennial wild flower of the pea family. Apparently according to recent research it can help protect bees against diseases. Chemical analysis of the plant has identified caffeine in the nectar of sainfoin which can not only protect bumble bees against viral disease but can reduce the impact of a fungal parasite as well. This reminds me of the fact that certain animals in the wild are known to leave the herd in order to find a particular plant that will medicate them if they are unwell.
As far as I know, sainfoin is the only wild flower that has been analysed in this way, but it does leave me wondering whether some or many of the flowers I am growing in my garden now might have similar medicinal effects and not just on bumble bees. What about the lupins, for example that I have just planted (and are being eaten to death by slugs). Lupins are pea flowers too. 
Sainfoin has other qualities as well. It is grown as a green manure, is said to produce healthy cows and make the 'best honey'. I wonder if clover has these qualities too? And what about gorse, vetch, broom, bird's foot trefoil? I can't wait for more research into more plants to find out what they actually do. And what about all the other wild flowers? I bet they have medicinal qualities.
I'm glad that wild flowers are beginning to be encouraged in the countryside and I'm glad I have planted my tiny little patch of wildflower lawn. Perhaps it will act as a local pharmacy for more creatures in the garden.
This young visitor to the garden was not looking for medication - she was after a pigeon.
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