Photo: Walter Siegmund (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
Silverweed
Potentilla anserina
Also known as Goose Tansy, Goosewort, Silver Cinquefoil, Trailing Tansy, Traveler's Ease
Key benefits
✦Traditional uses
✦Silverweed has long served as a gentle household astringent in European folk herbalism, steeped into teas to calm diarrhea and settle a queasy stomach, or cooled and used as a gargle for sore throats and mouth ulcers. Its slender roots, with a flavor somewhere between parsnip and sweet potato, once helped feed communities across Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia through hungry seasons, and travelers reportedly tucked the leaves into their shoes to soothe tired, blistered feet on long walks. Herbalists also traditionally reached for silverweed to ease women's menstrual cramps and to help tone tissues after childbirth.
How to grow & use it
✦The full apothecary for Silverweed
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- ✦Remedies & preparations
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- ✦Lady's mantle
“For a gentle, silvery-leaved ally when your stomach is unsettled or your throat feels raw.”
Silverweed's leaves are lined underneath with a dense felt of fine silvery hairs, so a breeze crossing a meadow of it seems to send a shimmer of light rippling across the ground, which is exactly how the plant earned its name.
Silverweed's tannins can cause stomach upset if used in excess or long-term. It has traditionally been used as a uterine tonic, so it's best avoided during pregnancy.