Last week I hiked around the Migdal Tzedek National Park, located near Rosh HaAyin in Central Israel. It’s prime time for flowering plants in the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East. Soon enough, summer weather will set in and dry up the landscape. I wrote about foraging wild edibles like wild beet greens at this time of year too.
Dozen of edible and medicinal herbs grow alongside the trail, but the one that especially caught my eye was the beautiful pink and blue prickly alkanet (Anchusa strigosa). If you look closely, you’ll see that the leaves are shaped like the tongue of a cow. Its Hebrew name is lashon ha par, meaning “ox tongue.”
Prickly alkanet has many sub-species, all of which flower in different colors. That can make it hard to identify when you’re wondering if that white flower is the right one, or the blue, or the vari-colored one. One characteristic you can’t miss is the prickles that cover the stems and leaves of the plant.
The leaves and young shoots of prickly alkanet are said to be edible, with reports from the early 20th-century scholar
Gustaf Dalman of local Arabs boiling, chopping, and sautéeing them. I’m not aware if eating prickly alknet is still common practice. Many traditional foods cooked from wild herbs have fallen out of use, although you might like this recipe for chickpea and wild beet greens soup.
I do know that who does love a good alkanet nosh are bees and other pollinators. I’d cultivate alkanet in my garden for that reason alone. It’s great to support pollinators in this bee-endangered world. Honey from rich prickly alkanet nectar was once a cottage industry in this region.
Folk medicine says that an ointment made of chopped prickly alkanet leaves and olive oil heals burns and chapped skin. The herb has anti-inflammatory properties that line up perfectly with those claims. It’s also said that the crushed fresh leaves will heal wounds, by which I assume that it applies to irritations like nettle stings and mosquito bites.
Some go further and say that some skin diseases may be cured by applications of alkanet ointment; but as we know that skin disease is the manifestation of deeper illness, I’d say that the herb relieves discomfort rather than cures disease.
Strong tea of prickly alkanet has been used to expel worms. Maimonides, the Jewish physician and scholar of the twelfth century, wrote of it as a useful drug, after its leaves are dried, powdered, and infused in hot water.
Today, the plant is still used in ointment form to treat cuts and bruises. Tea made from the leaves and flowers is used to treat coughs and excessive phlegm. A homeopathic remedy is made from it to treat stomach and duodenal ulcers.
Artisans who prefer to use all-natural colors know that alkanet root tea makes a reddish color for dying yarn. Soapmakers also infuse the powdered root into their oil to obtain red or blue color. It may be used to color food red, which was popular in the kitchens of the medieval wealthy. Since we don’t know what a safe dose is, I’d use caution with alkanet if I wanted to dye my food red. Or paprika, or tomato paste.
Myself, I’d bring prickly alkanet into my garden for its beauty alone. This the variety I found on my hike.
