Herb Robert

This little flower looks so pretty alongside paths and emerging from cracks in paving and gravel! But if we pick it we soon know that we should have left it well alone! For it smells horrid and is also known by names such as Stinking Crane’s Bill and Stinking Bob! In dry times the whole plant can look rather red – maybe that’s how it got its name – Robert – which comes from the Latin ruber meaning red.

So what does the crane’s bill refer to? That’s because the seed pod looks like a stork or crane’s bill.

As a herb it was used to treat bleeding after chilbirth.

It also has another rather unpleasant name… Death Come Quickly… the myth was that if you took it into your house, a death would occur shortly afterwards…