Cowslip Leaf And Flower Tea

Cowslip primrose has its roots in Scandinavia, so it was not a part of ancient medicine on continental Europe.
Nevertheless, it slowly spread all around Europe and was once as common as the buttercup, but suffered a decline between 1930 and 1980. This was mostly due to the relentless advance of modern farming, particularly the ploughing of old grassland and the extension of the use of chemical herbicides.
Luckily, it is now showing signs of recovery. It has begun to return to unsprayed verges and village greens as well as colonizing the banks of new roads.

As an early spring flower, it is closely associated with much English folklore and tradition, including being strewn on church paths for weddings and adorning garlands for May Day.
William Shakespeare was so taken by the beauty and benefit of cowslip that he immortalized it no less than 8 times throughout his plays.

“Where the bee sucks, there suck I. In a cowslip’s bell I lie.”—William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 5, scene 1

In addition to The Tempest, the ‘freckled cowslip’ also appears in Shakespeare’s Henry V as a sign of a well-managed pasture and in the 17th century, the famous English botanist Nicholas Culpepper asserted that anyone who used the distilled water from cowslip, or an ointment made from its flower, would become more beautiful.

Some of the many enchanting names of cowslip include Freckled face, Golden drops, Bunch of keys, Fairies’ flower, Lady’s fingers, Long legs and Milk maidens. Welsh names include dagrau Mair, ‘Mary’s tears’.
The nodding flowers suggests the bunch of keys which were the badge of St. Peter. One legend is that Peter was told that a duplicate key to Heaven had been made and therefore let his keys drop. The Cowslip broke from the ground where the keys fell.
Similarly, in German it is called Schlüsselblume, which directly translated also means “Key Flower”. Hildegard (a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath. She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany) referred to it as “Heaven’s Key”.
She believed that this plant with the bright yellow blossoms received its power from the sun, and could suppress melancholy in man, i.e. “When the cowslip primrose is heated and placed on the chest, the forces of the sun radiate back and cheer the heart.”.

In Hildegard’s later writings of monastic medicine, cowslip primrose was often referenced as a cardiac tonic, for colds and wound treatment. The tincture produced from the flowers was also used as nourishing skin treatment.

Cowslip has a delightful apricot smell and fruity, honey-like flavor. They were even traditionally used as a candy – the flowers were boiled in sugar and eaten as a sweet snack. Tea made from the flowers is also especially good for insomnia, headaches and nervous tension. The scented flowers also make delicious wines.

Apart from it’s medicinal benefits, cowslip is rich in calcium, potassium, sodium, Vitamin C, Beta-carotene, salicylic acid, enzymes, and flavonoids.

Common Names: Cowslip primrose, key flower, key of heaven, palsywort, fairy cups, primrose.