1. My mother, who was Latvian, used to make an infusion of pineapple weed, and if you had a septic finger, or anything like that, you would dip it in the infusion [Raynes Park, London, January 2001].

2. In Welsh according to the gentleman who brought it to my house it’s known as Pefelen. This gentleman stated as a youngster he had severe styes around the neck and that his grandmother made a poultice out of the leaves of this plant – ‘the poultice pulled like anything’ – but it got rid of the styes [Bethel, Gwynedd, March 1999].

Images: main, Burgess Park, London Borough of Southwark, May 2014; inset, Edensor, Derbyshire, July 2015.