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Veronica beccabunga

Common name:	Brooklime	Family:	Scrophulariaceae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Europe, incl Britain, from Norway south and east to N. Africa, temperate Asia to Japan and Himalayas
Habitat:	In streams, ditches, ponds and wet places in meadows, in acid or alkaline soils[9, 17].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Becabunga [E], Beccabunga Brooklime [E], Becky Leaves [H], Beekpunge [D], Brooklembe [H], Brooklime [H,L,E], Cow Cress [H], European Brooklime [H,L], European Speedwell [P,B], Horse Cress [H], Housewell Grass [H], Kurrat Al A'In [E], Limewort [H], Limpwort [H], Suyavsani [E], Wall-ink [H], Water Pimpernel [H], Water-Pumpy [H], Well-ink [H],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Scrophulariales. Figwort family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Eurasia; Europe; India; Iraq; Spain; Turkey

Physical Characteristics

Perennial growing to 0.6m. It is hardy to zone 5 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to September, and the seeds ripen from July to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Flies and bees. The plant is self-fertile. It is noted for attracting wildlife. We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires wet soil and can grow in water.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Pond, Bog Garden, Woodland, Sunny Edge.

Edible Uses

Leaves.

Leaves - raw or cooked[2, 4, 5, 115]. They can be added to salads, mixed with water cress or cooked with other strongly flavoured greens[9, 183]. A pungent flavour, although the leaves are wholesome they are not very palatable[4, 12].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Alterative; Antiscorbutic; Diuretic; Emmenagogue; Febrifuge; Poultice.

The whole plant is alterative, antiscorbutic, very mildly diuretic, emmenagogue and febrifuge[4, 9, 13, 21]. It is of little benefit as a medicinal herb, but has a beneficial laxative effect when included in the diet[9]. The leaves are used in the treatment of scurvy, impurity of the blood etc[240]. The plant is bruised and applied externally as a politic on burns, ulcers, whitlows, etc[240].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Easily grown in a moderately fertile wet soil, growing best in water up to 15cm deep[24, 200]. Prefers cool summers[200]. Plants do not demand high light levels[200].
A good bee plant[24].

Propagation

Seed - sow autumn in a cold frame. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in the summer.
If you have sufficient, the seed can be sown in situ in the spring or the autumn.
Division at almost any time in the growing season. Very easy, even a small part of the plant will root if put in water[K].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Scrophulariaceae.

[CHINA] Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[5] Mabey. R. Food for Free. Collins 1974 ISBN 0-00-219060-5
Edible wild plants found in Britain. Fairly comprehensive, very few pictures and rather optimistic on the desirability of some of the plants.

[9] Launert. E. Edible and Medicinal Plants. Hamlyn 1981 ISBN 0-600-37216-2
Covers plants in Europe. a drawing of each plant, quite a bit of interesting information.

[12] Loewenfeld. C. and Back. P. Britain's Wild Larder. David and Charles ISBN 0-7153-7971-2
A handy pocket guide.

[13] Triska. Dr. Hamlyn Encyclopaedia of Plants. Hamlyn 1975 ISBN 0-600-33545-3
Very interesting reading, giving some details of plant uses and quite a lot of folk-lore.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[21] Lust. J. The Herb Book. Bantam books 1983 ISBN 0-553-23827-2
Lots of information tightly crammed into a fairly small book.

[24] Baines. C. Making a Wildlife Garden.
Fairly good with lots of ideas about creating wildlife areas in the garden.

[115] Johnson. C. P. The Useful Plants of Great Britain.
Written about a hundred years ago, but still a very good guide to the useful plants of Britain.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[240] Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. 1986
Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.

Readers Comments

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Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
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We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.