Plants Every Medieval Person Knew
Ms. Agnes deLanvallei March 2006
Course Taught at Calontir's Royal University
I thought when I started I would make a list with a few universals, plants that everyone knew. There may be a few plants, like wheat and onions, that fall into that category, but in fact generally it depended where you were and who you were, because 1) Europe has diverse climates and 2) the plants available changed over time
1. Europe has diverse regions. Check out, for example the USDA Zones Map for Europe http://www.passionflow.co.uk/usda1.htm and proposed European environmental zones
http://pan.cultland.org/cultbase/?document_id=152&menu_top_level=doc_zone
In particular, the plants of Italy, Greece and the rim of the Mediterranean are different from those of Germany, England and Scandinavia. The Mediterranean has a hot rainless summer and a cool wet winter. The north has a cool summer and a cold winter, with rain or snow falling all year round. As a result, different plants are native to these areas.
2. The important plants changed over time:
Early Middle Ages (600 to 1000) People had and used largely local species modified by the Roman influence: things the Romans valued as herbs were transported through all their empire and lingered after the Empire fell.
1000- 1300: churchmen raised and transported herbs. The Crusades exposed people to a variety of spices and other plants, increasing trade with the Middle East and beyond;
Late Middle Ages and Renaissance (1300-1600: To the European choices were added plants from all over the world as the Age of Exploration touched Africa, Asia and the Americas
Who you are modifies what plants you would know: Rural people knew crops and useful plants of their area; people from big urban centers might not know even what an apple tree looked like. The processing and packaging was very much less than today, however. Even if you did not know what kind of plant the apple grew on, dinner preparation usually began with whole apples, parsnips, beets, etc. Our spices come dried and powdered in little glass jars. Medieval cooks more likely bought fresh sprigs of mint or sage and so knew what the leaves looked like.
Important and Familiar Plants:
Northern Europe
1. Foods
Cultivated: apples, barley, beets, cabbages, currants, fava beans, grapes, lentils, oats, onions, peas, parsnips, pears, plums, radishes, rye, turnips, wheat
Mainly gathered from wild plants: blackberries, cherries, chestnut, gooseberries, hazelnut, various edible greens, mulberries, wild plums, raspberries, strawberries, walnut
2. Culinary and minor medical
Cultivated: coriander, fenugreek, flax (for flax seed also for linen), mustard, parsley, rosemary, sage
Gathered: caraway, dill, fennel, garlic, horseradish, juniper, mint, plantain rosemary, rue, sage, tansy, thyme
3. Useful: madder (dye plant), oak, willow, woad (dye plant), yew
4. Serious medicines would be grown by specialists: herbalists, apothecaries, monks.
Southern Europe From about midFrance south, see
1. Foods
Cultivated: almond, apples, barley, beets, cabbages, cucumber, currants, eggplant, fava beans grapes, lentils, melons, radishes, oats, olives, onions, parsnips, peas, pears, pomegranate, poppy (for seed), plums, rye, sesame (for seed), turnips, watermelon, wheat
Really far south: date palm, fig tree, sour oranges, lemon (from about 1100), lime (from about 1300)
Mainly gathered wild: blackberries, cherries, chestnut, filbert, various edible greens, hazelnut, liquorice, mulberries, wild plums, raspberries, strawberries, walnut
2. Culinary and minor medicinal
Cultivated: aloe
Gathered (cultivated in populated areas and later Period) : caraway, coriander, dill, fennel, fenugreek, garlic, juniper, mint, oregano, rosemary, rue, sage, tansy, thyme
3. Useful: oak, willow, yew
4.Serious medicines would be grown by specialists: herbalists, apothecaries, monks.
Commonly known spices that were bought not raised since they grew in North Africa, the Middle East or beyond: cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black pepper
Complications: Scandinavia, Russia, Spain probably different (distinctive climate and flora) until trade united them with rest of Europe. North Africa and Middle East also have distinctly different climates and plants.
Plants discussedList of the plants and their scientific names: link.
USEFUL REFERENCES
Environmental Zones of Europe 2004 http://pan.cultland.org/cultbase/?document_id=152&menu_top_level=doc_zone
Hancock, James F. 1992. Plant evolution and the origin of crop species. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Priest-Dorman, Caroline 1999. Archaeological Finds of Ninth- and Tenth-Century Viking Foodstuffs on Thora's Viking Resources http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.html
Simpson, Beryl B. and Molly C. Orgazaly. 2001.Economic Botany. McGraw Hill, New York
Smartt, J. and N. W. Simmonds. 1995. Evolution of crop plants. Longman, London.
United States Department of Agriculture. 2006. USDA Plants Database. http://plants.usda.gov Very helpful website, but remember they are focused on US not European plants. This is the authoritative site for getting correct plant scientific names today.
USDA Zones Map for Europe http://www.passionflow.co.uk/usda1.htm
Vaughan, J. G. and C. A. Geissler. 1997. The new Oxford book of food plants. Oxford University Press, Oxford.ISBN 0-19-854825-7
Whipkey, Anna and Jules Janek. 2005. The festoons of the cupid and psyche loggia in the Villa Farnesina. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/udine/info.html
Wilson, C. A. 1991. Food and drink in Britain from the stone age to the 19th century. Academy Chicago Publishers, Chicago.