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Arctium lappa
[Synonyms : Arcion majus, Arcion tomentosum, Arctium bardana, Arctium chaorum, Arctium
glabrescens, Arctium grandiflorum, Arctium lappa var. lappa, Arctium lappa var. majus,
Arctium leiospermum, Arctium maassii, Arctium macrospermum, Arctium majus, Arctium
minus subsp. nemorosum, Arctium nemorosum, Arctium nemosorum forma mathei,
Arctium newbouldii, Arctium officinalis, Arctium pubens var. microcephalum, Arctium
ruderale, Arctium vulgare, Bardana arctium, Bardana lappa, Lappa edulis, Lappa
glabra, Lappa major, Lappa nemorosa, Lappa officinalis, Lappa officinalis var. majus,
Lappa vulgaris, Lappa vulgaris var. vulgaris]
GREATER BURDOCK is a biennial or perennial. Native to temperate Europe it has prickly
heads of tiny red to purple flowers, with dark purple stamens.
It is also known as Babí kořen (Czech), Bachelor’s buttons, Bad weed, Bardana (Italian,
Spanish), Bardane (French), Bazzies, Beggar’s buttons, Billy button, Bobby buttons,
Buddy weed, Burdock, Burdocken, Burr, Burr seed, Butter-dock, Buzzies, Cleavers,
Clitch-button, Clite, Clogweed, Clot-bur, Clote, Clots, Cloud-burr, Clouts, Cluts, Cockle
bells, Cockle-bur, Cockle buttons, Cockles, Cockle-dock, Common burdock, Cradan,
Credan, Cuckle buttons, Cuckold, Cuckold buttons, Cuckold dock, Cuckoldy-burrbusses, Cuckoo button, Cuckow, Cyngaf Mawr (Welsh), Donkeys, Eddick, Flapper-bags,
Fox’s clote, Gipsy comb, Gipsy’s rhubarb, Gobo (Japanese), Grass burdock, Great bur,
Great burdock, Grosse Klette (German), Gypsy’s rhubarb, Happy major, Hardane,
Hardock, Hareburr, Hare-lock, Hayriff, Hořký lupen (Czech), Horse-burr, Hur bur,
Hurrburr, Isotakiainen (Finnish), Kisses, Kiss-me-quick, Klette (German), Klis (Dutch),
Knoflíky (Czech), Lapáčky (Czech), Lapo (Esperanto), Lappa, Lappola (Italian), Loppy
major, Lopuch větší (Czech), Love leaves, Ngu’u bàng (Vietnamese), Old man’s buttons,
Pig’s rhubarb, Snake’s rhubarb, Soldier’s buttons, Stick button, Sticky buttons, Sticky
jacks, Stor kardborre (Swedish), Sweethearts, Thorny burr, Touch-me-not, Turkey
burrseed, Turkey rhubarb, Tuzzy-muzzy, and Wild rhubarb; and in flower language is
said to be a symbol of importunity, and ‘touch me not’.
Warning – handling the plant can cause dermatitis. The burs can cause skin irritation for
animals.
Lappa is derived from Celtic llap (hand) and is a Latin name for ‘bur’.
The Romans must have been familiar with greater burdock as records note that they kept their
money inside large balls made from a mixture of burs, pitch and nettles.
Greater burdock roots are eaten in many parts of Asia and are cultivated for the table in Japan
where they are eaten raw or cooked as an ingredient in stir-fries, stews and soups. They
are a rich source of dietary fibre. The roots (roasted and ground) have also provided a
substitute for coffee. The young leaves are said to be eaten in salad in both Japan and
Scandinavia, and it has been reported that leaves are used in Russia to season fish and
game. On the other hand there are those authorities who have, from experience, stated
that the leaves are far too bitter at any stage in their life to be eaten by man. The
immature flower stems (picked before the flowers bloom) have also been eaten raw or as
a cooked vegetable (like garden asparagus, Asparagus officinalis) – and even candied. It
is this root, by the way, that is used for flavouring in the traditional English soft drink
©Sue Eland 2008
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known as ‘dandelion and burdock’.
Apparently greater burdock (or rather its burs) bears some responsibility for an invention
developed in the mid-20th Century. They were the inspiration behind the clothing
fastening known as ‘Velcro’ that was invented by the Swiss mountaineer and inventor,
George de Mestral (1907-1990). According to authorities’ descriptions in 1948 he was
walking in the mountains with his dog and found, on his return home, that his clothing
and his dog’s fur were covered in burs. He was not a botanist but his curiosity was
aroused and he examined these burs under a microscope and discovered the tiny little
hooks covering the outside of the small fruit – hooks which attached themselves to fur,
feather or material that brushed against them (thus distributing them to a far wider area
than if they had just fallen on the ground below the parent plant). Pondering their tenacity
he applied similar principles to inventing the tape now familiar as Velcro (the name is
said to be derived from the words ‘velour’ and ‘crochet’) which was patented in 1955
after considerable problems had been overcome in devising a process by which the
fastening could be effectively and practicably manufactured.
Some authorities have mused on the appearance of greater burdock in many works of art,
mainly landscapes such as those of the French artist, Claude Gêlée, better known as
Claude Lorraine (1600-1682). It has even been mooted that greater burdock is a
particularly useful subject for foreground.
The plant (particularly the burs) is referred to in several plays written by William Shakespeare
(1564-1616). In As You Like It the English dramatist writes
They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday foolery; if we
walk not in the trodden paths our very petticoats will catch them.
As both a prevention and cure for rheumatism gypsies used to wear a little bag of burs around
their necks. In similar vein (and influenced it is claimed by the dogma of the Doctrine of
Signatures particularly fashionable in the 16th Century) some people were said to have
swallowed burs as an aid to remembering something – so that it would ‘stick’ in their
mind as the burs themselves cling to material.
Across the Atlantic in North America records show that once it had been introduced there
greater burdock provided food for the North American Iroquois Indians. According to
some authorities they cooked the young leaves as a vegetable and dried the roots for
storage and Winter use when they made them into a soup. It is noted as mentioned earlier
though that there are some authorities today who contend, from experience, that even the
processed leaves are likely to have been far too bitter to consume.
Other North American tribes found medicinal uses for the plant. The Chippewa used the roots
to produce a blood tonic, while the Micmac, Malecite and Menominee tribes used greater
burdock for treating various sores, and the latter also recognised it as a remedy for some
venereal diseases (as did the Cherokee). In addition the Cherokee sometimes chose it as a
treatment for rheumatism, as a counter for scurvy and like the Chippewa a blood tonic.
Medicinally, it was used by European herbalists in the Middle Ages for the treatment of gall
and kidney stones, and later for lung complaints, bladder and kidney ailments generally
and gout. Herbalists also employed greater burdock leaves to encourage appetite and treat
wounds, and it gained a name (maintained in some quarters today) as a remedy for skin
complaints and as a blood purifier. The English, barber-surgeon and herbalist (the latter
as a charlatan for many pundits) John Gerard (1545-1612) also recommended the stalks
as an aphrodisiac. Unlike the Europeans, North Americans used the seeds instead of other
parts of the plant for medicinal purposes. Today greater burdock is used in Chinese
medicine, and in some parts of the world is recommended in the treatment of some
cancers.
©Sue Eland 2008
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