Chamaenerion angustifolium seed

LATIN NAME: Chamaenerion angustifolium

COMMON NAME: Fireweed

Fireweed is the plant that moves in after a fire, and it is one of the first things to turn a blackened slope green again. The tall, straight stems rise in dense, bright pink stands across the open ground of the north, and a hillside full of it in flower is one of the great sights of the northern summer. The narrow, willow-like leaves run up the stems, and the four-petalled, rosy flowers open from the bottom of the spike upward over a long stretch of the season. It spreads freely by the creeping roots and by the countless fine seeds, and it brings the bees, the butterflies and the seed-eating birds with it wherever it goes.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

Botanists have long kept fireweed on their lists because it is one of the most reliable colonisers of disturbed ground, and the way it reclaims a burn site has been written about in the forestry and the ecology journals for decades. Its fast growth, its light, wind-carried seeds and its ability to store up reserves in the roots have all been studied closely, and the plant keeps turning up in the studies of the land recovery and the meadow restoration. The young shoots are rich in the vitamin C and the provitamin A, and the plant has been a quiet subject of the food and the nutraceutical work as well. There is a steady line of papers on the fibre and the paper-making value of the stems, so the science here is solid and ongoing.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

The value of fireweed is real and broad. The flowers are a major nectar source, and the mild, light honey made from them is prized in the regions where the plant grows wild. The young leaves and the peeled shoots have long been eaten as a spring green, and the fine, silky seed fluff has been used to stuff pillows and to spin into a soft, light yarn. Around the north it is planted in the meadow mixes and the pollinator gardens, and it has been written about in the horticultural and the ecological papers for its role in bringing the life back to the burnt and the cleared ground. It is a generous, easy plant for the wild patch of the garden, and it asks for very little beyond the open sun.

The fireweed is at home across the north of the world, from the cool woods of the northern America to the slopes of the Europe and the Asia, and it is one of the plants that a traveller sees over and over along the roads and the rail lines and the old burn sites. The honey made from its flowers is a famous, pale, mild honey in the regions where the plant is common, and the young shoots have long been gathered in the spring. The thick, straight stems were once used to make a soft, light fibre, and the silky seed fluff has been gathered to stuff the pillows. It is a plant with a long, honest record of use among the people of the north.

For the gardener who wants a patch of fireweed, the seed is as fine as dust, so scatter it thinly over the surface of a pot of moist, ordinary, free-draining soil and press it in without covering it, since it wants the light to sprout. Keep the pot in the open, in a bright, warm spot, and water it gently so the surface stays damp. The tiny seedlings appear within a couple of weeks, and they grow on into strong young plants that can be set out in the open ground with room to spread. It is one of the easiest of the wildflowers to start from seed.

Epilobium angustifolium
‘Rosebay Willowherb’
(Syn. Chamaenerion angustifolium)
Onagraceae: a showy perennial to 1.5m. Found on waste ground, cleared woodland, river banks and railway embankments, found on a wide range of soil types. The flowers are round 3mm across, with pinkish-purple petals, in tall spikes from July-September. The long thin pods contain cottony seeds. The leaves are lanceolate, arranged spirally up the stems. Widespread and fairly common throughout Britain. Native to Europe, including Britain, temperate Asia and North America.

USES:

The leaves and young shoot tips are said to be a wholesome vegetable and are a good source of vitamins A and C. A tea is also made from the dried leaves.

Willow herb is often used as a domestic herbal remedy, though it is little used in conventional herbalism. The herb has antispasmodic, astringent, demulcent, emollient, hypnotic, laxative and tonic properties.

GROWING INFORMATION:

An easily grown plant, it prefers a well-drained but moisture retentive soil in a sunny position. A very ornamental plant, it is the floral emblem of the Yukon. It is a food plant for the caterpillars of several lepidoptera species, it is also a good bee plant. Surface sow early spring in situ or in pots.

Chamaenerion angustifolium    Epilobium angustifolium