Shakespeare-Troilus and Cressida
"Love leaves" seems a strange nickname for the pesky burdock. My dog, a high-strung and thin-skinned Border Collie, always looks haunted after tangling with the plant's burrs. She flees, as if in an attempt to outrun the importunate hitchhikers. When I'm attempting to dig them out of her long fur, only to be rewarded with fine spines in my fingertips, I feel less than affectionate toward this particular weed myself!
The "love" may refer to the burdock's vaguely heart-shaped leaves. It could, however, derive from another nickname, philanthropium, which comes from the Greek philantropos-meaning "loving mankind." At first, I assumed this was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the burrs' clingy ways. But after learning of the burdock's many historical uses, I have to concede that it can, indeed, be a friend to man.
The plant has a wealth of such nicknames, including bardana, beggar's buttons, clot-bur, cocklebur, fox's clote, happy major, hardock, personata, and gypsy's or Robin Hood's rhubarb. The Latin name, arctium lappa, is from the Greek arktos ("bear") in reference to the burr's coarsely hairy texture. Lappa ("to sieze") may derive from the Celtic llap ("hand"). Arctium minus ("lesser burdock") is also common in the U. S., though there is nothing minor about the size of the variety here in PA! The "bur" in the common name comes from the Latin burra ("lock of wool"), since sheep sometimes leave bits of their coats behind on the cockleburs. Dock is an Old English word for "plant". For obvious reasons burdock stands, in the Language of Flowers, for both "importunity" and "touch me not."
As one of the nicknames indicates, burdock's large leaves are similar to rhubarb's, though less glossy. Burdock's stems have also been eaten, though usually as a vegetable rather than a fruit. Cut before the plant flowers, those stems are stripped of their green rind. Only the white cores are boiled and consumed. They are supposed to taste similar to asparagus and were sometimes candied like angelica.
I always assumed burdock leaves to be as toxic as rhubarb's. Having long experience at trying to wrest burdock's one-to-three-foot roots out of my flowerbeds, I am quite familiar with the plant's less-than-appetizing smell on my hands. The leaves are supposed to be edible, however, if cooked. Herbalists caution that children under two, pregnant women, and those with acidic stomach problems or ulcers should not consume any part of burdock. Diabetics on insulin should probably avoid it too, since it lowers blood sugar.
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