Helleborus viridis L., Green Hellebore

Account Summary

Irish and British occurrence and status

In Ireland, H. viridis has always been accepted as being a persistent alien introduction, but in Britain small, permanent, supposedly or traditionally native populations are widely distributed. The plant usually occurs on chalk or limestone in shady lowland habitats such as wooded glades, rocky stream-sides and in old hedgerow banks. However, H. viridis has been grown in gardens throughout Britain and Ireland since medieval times (Harvey 1990; Landsberg 1996) and it was first recorded 'in the wild' around 1562. It is therefore difficult or virtually impossible to distinguish native from introduced populations and, after so long a period in cultivation, it appears rather foolish to even try to do so.

Fermanagh occurrence

H. viridis has been rarely recorded in ten tetrads, seven of them with post-1975 records. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Meikle and his companions were exploring the flora of Fermanagh, they recorded five widely spaced stations of the plant. Nowadays we know of six scattered populations, including two that they originally discovered − at Rossclare Bay and near Monea Castle. The typical habitats include woods, scrub, shaded river banks, and on scree below cliffs, usually on limestone. Meikle recalled seeing the plant in scrub on the limestone shore of Lower Lough Erne at Rossclare on family holidays in the 1930s (Carrothers et al. 1947), and a large patch of about 18 plants survives to this day in the same area. At Coffey's Ford, SW of Kinawley, there are 20 large patches growing beside a stream, clearly indicating that the plant is reproducing successfully.

In the Revised Typescript Flora of Fermanagh, Meikle remarked that the plant was often found far removed from gardens and that it appeared, "perfectly spontaneous". He also suggested that some of the existing populations might have been derived from stocks of the plant deliberately cultivated for cattle medicine (see below) (Meikle et al. 1975).

Growth form and reproduction

The species has a short, stout, ascending, blackish rootstock as its perennating organ, but the attached pair (or more) of leathery radical leaves and the aerial stem do not overwinter. Being a long-lived perennial, the current rootstock of the plant tends to be surrounded by a substantial woody cluster of old decaying stem-bases left from previous years (Ross-Craig 1948, Part 1, plate 38), but the plant has no real means of vegetative reproduction.

Growth begins early in midwinter, and the individual plant produces its two to four yellowish-green flowers around the second half of February or early March. Flowering generally continues on into April. Each flower contains 9-12 pocket-like green nectaries that attract early flying bees as pollinators. The insects collect both nectar and pollen from the flowers, both of which are urgently required to feed the developing brood of the bee colony in the spring.

Seed production and snail dispersal

The flower usually has three carpels and the fruit is a many-seeded follicle. The individual seeds are rather large, 4.5 × 3 mm, and dark brown in colour. Salisbury (1942) examined a small sample of 25 plants and calculated the mean annual seed output as 191, ± 48, per plant. The seeds possess an obvious appendage growing out from the seed coat. This is an edible elaiosome or oil-body that attracts ants which carry off the seeds when they are shaken out of the open fruit onto the soil or other surface, thus assisting the species' dispersal (Beattie 1985).

It has also be reported that the elaisome of the related species H. foetidus attracts snails which devour the oil-body and in so doing get some of the seed adhering to their slimy body. Dymes (1916) observed that the snail resented the presence of seeds on its head or tail and actively sloughed them off. However, the snail was quite unconcerned if the seed stuck to its body near the shell on the head side. A snail was observed to carry a seed in this manner for a distance of 35 cm. The Garden Snail (Cornu asperum = Helix aspersa), on average travels 5 cm per minute and Dymes measured them travelling a distance of 5.4 m for food. While molluscs move slowly, they do get around and they are abundant and widespread in many types of plant community across Britain and Ireland. If snails commonly carry seeds in the manner described, they would certainly play a significant role in seed dispersal (Ridley 1930, p. 150).

This is yet another plea for a return to careful natural history observation, something for which people in the British Isles were once famous, and could be again. No laboratory required; just eyes, imagination, time, patience and a notebook, although a hand-lens and a stereo-zoom low-power microscope would certainly also be useful!

The solitary determination of the soil seed bank in the NW European survey indicates that the Green Hellebore seed is transient (persisting in the soil for less than a year) (Thompson et al. 1997). A correspondent of Salisbury's indicated that the rate of germination success is low (Salisbury 1942, p. 178).

Reasons for population decline

The waning of H. viridis populations in Britain and Ireland that is apparent from the New Atlas hectad map may partly be attributable to records of introductions which failed to persist. Additionally, some long-established populations are known to have been lost as a result of changes in agricultural and land management practices taking place during the last 50 years, including the clearance of hedges and copses, and the gradual cessation of woodland coppicing (R.A. Fitzgerald, in: Preston et al. 2002).

Toxins

The principal toxin hellebore plants contain is protoanemonin, as found in most other members of the family Ranunculaceae. The content of this irritant varies widely with the species. The scale of the variation is demonstrated by the fact that measurements showed H. foetidus (Stinking Hellebore) contained 672 µg/g, while H. viridis had just 28 µg/g of the toxin present (Cooper & Johnson 1998). Numerous other references (including Clapham et al. 1962) mention the presence of two further toxic glycosides named helleborin and helleborein, and the fact that the plant has a burning taste.

Use in herbal medicine and related plant names

Decoctions of hellebores (both species covered here) were used in former years as purgatives, local anaesthetics, abortifacients, or to clear parasitic infestations of the skin or animal coat (Cooper & Johnson 1998). The association of garlic with veterinary application of Green Hellebore root in cattle follows an old belief, possibly dating from the ancient Classical Period. This suggested that since hellebore was such a powerful herb, a certain amount of prayer and ritual should be observed when lifting its rootstocks. "The person digging them up had either to chew on, or shortly before have eaten, several cloves of garlic, simply to ward off the poisonous effluvia of its roots." (Le Strange 1977, p. 136).

In the Revised Typescript Flora of Fermanagh, Meikle records being told by a local hotelier when he was on an outing in the Lough Melvin area during 1949 that, "the plant is (or was) used for a disorder of cattle, being pounded with butter and garlic and rubbed into an incision in the animal's tail, 'until you could smell the garlic on its breath.'" We are not told what the cow was suffering from, but other sources indicate it was used either as a purgative for worms, or to clear the skin and coat of lice (Grieve 1931; Le Strange 1977).

While the hotelier in Fermanagh described the application of the remedy to the tail of the animal, other accounts tell of an incision being made in the cow's dewlap (the loose fold of skin hanging under the animal's throat), and the Green Hellebore rootstock, or a preparation made from it, inserted into the wound. One of the less well known English common names of the species is 'Setterwort', which is derived from the term used to describe the aforementioned process, which is 'settering' or 'pegging' the dewlap. Prior (1879, p. 213) who details this plant name and the medicinal term, mentions that 'setter' is a corruption of 'seton', derived from the Italian 'setone', meaning a large thread of silk. Possibly the thread was used to sew up the wound in the dewlap. An alternative name for Green Hellebore is 'Pegroots', from the operation of 'pegging the dewlap'. Prior (1879) also indicates that settering was used to treat lung problems in cattle, such as coughs or wheezes (Prior 1879; Grigson 1987).

Cases of cattle poisoning have occurred as a result of this process, as one could easily imagine, the symptoms of which included prostration, loss of appetite, swelling of the neck, loss of condition of the coat, muscular tremors and difficult breathing (Cooper & Johnson 1998). Clearly the plant is not one to be handled more than necessary!

European occurrence

H. viridis has a strictly western discontinuous, native distribution on continental Europe, centred on France and stretching south to N Spain and N Italy, northwards to C Germany and east to Poland. The species has established alien status both within this range and to the north of it (Jalas & Suominen 1989, Map 1524). In plant geography, its distribution is summarised as suboceanic temperate (Preston & Hill 1997). The plant was introduced to New England for its somewhat dubious medicinal properties and it has become naturalised in N America (Grigson 1987).

Names

Some authorities derive the genus name 'Helleborus' from the Greek 'helein' or 'elein', meaning 'to kill' or 'to injure', and 'bora', meaning 'food', indicating the poisonous properties of the plants (Melderis & Bangerter 1955; Cricheley Plowden 1972). Other writers suggest the name 'helleboros' was the ancient classical Greek name for H. orientale (Gilbert-Carter 1964; Stearn 1992). The Latin specific epithet 'viridis' simply translates as 'green'.

English common names additional to those already mentioned above include 'Bear's-foot' and 'Boar's-foot' − a bear is called a 'boar' in Scotland, especially in northern Scotland, according to a source quoted by Britten & Holland (1886, p. 55); the allusion is to the digitately lobed leaf of the plant (Prior 1879). Another interesting name is 'Fellon-grass' which was applied to several quite different plants of which Hellebores were just one. In Westmorland, the name was applied to H. viridis. A 'fellon' was a boil or swelling, most commonly encountered in children. Housewives grew the plant to treat these childhood skin problems and partly also to treat against worms. It was a dangerous treatment, however, and it sometimes killed both the worms and the patient (Grigson 1987).

Threats in Fermanagh

The old, well-established Rossclare and Monea Castle sites could be threatened by building development.

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