Another of the Ivy League

Folklore/Common Names: Nepeta, Alehoof, Gill-go-over-the-Ground, Haymaids, Tunhoof, Hedgemaids, Haymaids, Lizzy-run-up-the-Hedge, Gill-go-by-the-Hedge, Catsfoot, Robin-run-in-the-Hedge

Parts Used: Whole Herb

Historical Reference:

Ground Ivy was as revered in days past as it is reviled by most gardeners today, and we in the Northern Hemisphere can largely thank our European ancestors for introducing this wildflower to our yards and gardens, as it was brought with them as a prized medicinal plant. In fact, from the time of the ancient Greeks through fairly recent days, Ground Ivy was highly regarded as a medicinal plant for everything from eye complaints through sciatica, kidney disorders through coughs and headaches. Besides its medicinal use, Ground Ivy was one of the primary herbs used by the early Saxons to clarify their beers, before the introduction of hops. This led to one of its common names of Alehoof, or Tunhoof ('hoof' meaning 'herb'). Reports say that the Ivy not only clarified the brew, but also improved the flavor as well as the storage time. This practice remained in effect up until the time of Henry VIII.

The plant acquired another of its common names from a similar source. The name Gill comes from the French guiller meaning "to ferment beer". However, as gill also meant 'a girl' one source says it also lead to the name of 'Hedgemaids'. However, I suspect this moniker also had a good deal to do with the plant's chosen growing areas along the hedgerows.

In the early 19th and 20th centuries, painters in the US used Ground Ivy to prevent and treat lead colic by drinking fresh infusions of the plant.

Medicinal Use:

Ground Ivy is less commonly used today, but remains prolific enough to consider for a variety of common ailments. First, let's take a look at its usefulness in herbal medicinal history:

M. Grieve tells us in A Modern Herbal, "From early days, Ground Ivy has been endowed with singular curative virtues...It has even been extolled before all other vegetable medicines for the cure of consumption." She recommends a tonic known as "Gill Tea" made from a hot infusion of the herb mixed with honey and drunk when cool "in wineglassful doses, three or four times a day" as a treatment for coughs and as a blood purifier, to treat "weakness of the digestive organs, being stimulating and tonic".

Ground Ivy produces a juice that is diuretic, astringent and diaphoretic, and as such was also commonly used as a snuff for headache, especially congestive headaches. The juice was also recommended topically for bruises and black eyes, and was combined with Yarrow and Chamomile to make a poultice for abscesses and tumors. A wash of the cooled infusion was also used to treat sore or weak eyes, a folk remedy still used in some rural areas to treat eye spots in cattle.

Go To Page: 1 2 3