Blood and bandages: a healer in the hedgerow

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire Even though the woundwort has lost its place in the pharmacy, bees visit these late flowers for the nectar tucked inside themWoundwort grows from a hedge as if to mark some hurt, not to heal so much as to witness it. Hedge woundwort, Stachys sylvatica, belongs to the betony, horehounds and catmint of the waysides. It has small tight whorls of “blood and bandages” flowers – purply red clasps with white markings – nettle-like leaves and a hairy stem