About the compiler

Roy Vickery was born in March 1947 in rural west Dorset. From 1965 to 2007 he worked as a botanist at the Natural History Museum, London. He remains a Scientific Associate at the Museum, and is currently chairman of the Trustees of the South London Botanical Institute and a vice-president of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. He has collected plant folklore for many years and has extensively written on plant-lore, Quaker and green issues.
He is currently working on a book provisionally entitled A Folk Flora.

Selected publications

Holy Thorn of Glastonbury, St Peter Port: Toucan Press, 1979, an account of the legends associated with Glastonbury’s holy thorn.

Unlucky Plants, London: Folklore Society, 1985, results of a survey of plants which are believed to cause misfortune if picked or taken indoors.

Traditional herbal remedies in the British Isles: Some recently collected examples, Ethnobotany 6: 1-14, 1994.

A Dictionary of Plant-lore, Oxford, O.U.P., 1995, wide-ranging survey of British and Irish plant folklore, concentrating on material collected in the late 20th century.

Oaks in British and Irish Folklore, International Oaks 15: 59-67, 2004.

Naughty Man’s Plaything – Folklore & Uses of Stinging Nettles in the British Isles, London: the author, 2008, small booklet providing a comprehensive survey of nettle-lore.

Garlands, Conkers & Mother-die: British & Irish Plant-lore, London: Continuum, 2010, essays on aspects of plant folklore, using previously published and recently collected material.

Roy is an experienced lecturer on plant folklore, and is also available to lead walks on the uses and folklore of plants – you provide the weed patch or the hedgerow, he will do the rest. See the News and Events page for details of upcoming activities.

Images: leading a plant-lore walk, Burgess Park, Southwark, London, August 2011, David Barrett; examining Koch’s gentian (Gentiana acaulis), North Downs Way between Box Hill and Merstham, Surrey, October 2011, Andrew Hay.