Roy Vickery will be leading a Plant Walk in Brompton Cemetery, Earls Court, London, on Sunday 3 May, starting at 2.30 p.m., and continuing for about an hour.  Meet at the chapel in the centre of the Cemetery.  Organised by the Friends of Brompton Cemetery, for whom a collection will be made.

Report:  11 people turned up on a dull, cool, but just about dry, afternoon, and spent about 75 minutes wandering around looking at a variety of plants.  Participants told how ripe elder (Sambucus nigra) berries made a good jam, and the unripe berries were used in peashooters, made from young elder twigs, ‘in the unending wars between boys’ in London; young nettle (Urtica dioica) tops were made into soup in Scandinavia;  itching powder was made from dog rose (Rosa canina) hips in France, and apple-of-Peru, also known as shoo-fly (Nicandra physalodes), was planted around houses in the Caribbean to deter flies.  At the end of the walk a worthwhile sum was collected in support of the Friends’ work.

Image: yarrow (Achillea millefolium), used to treat nosebleeds and in love divination; Brompton Cemetery, August 2017.