Peucedanum ostruthium (L.) W.D.J. Koch, Masterwort
Account Summary
Introduction, archaeophyte, a rare garden escape, locally extinct.
1950; MCM & D; roadside bank between Tempo and Brougher Mountain.
Origin and reproduction
Introduced by medieval herbalists from the mountains of C & S Europe, this rather large, perennial (up to 100 cm) grows from a rhizome or tuberous rootstock and has distinctive ternately divided leaves and umbels with numerous papillose rays (Tutin 1980). Previously it was valued and cultivated for many centuries, both as an edible potherb and for herbal medicinal and veterinary use. Nowadays, it has ceased to be employed in herbalism and is rarely cultivated in Britain and even less so in Ireland (Stace 2019). Masterwort flowers regularly, and while to some extent it must have escaped from cultivation by means of seed dispersal, it could also be spread by transported rhizome or tuber fragments or through discards. It reproduces locally by vigorous rhizome or tuber growth and can produce persistent, clonal patches several metres across (Jonsell & Karlsson 2010).
Fermanagh occurrence
There is only one record for Masterwort in the Fermanagh Flora Database, when Meikle and co-workers found it in 1950 in some quantity along the hedgerow between Tempo and Brougher Mountain, along a stretch of about 1300 m (Revised Typescript Flora). It has not been recorded again since then in Fermanagh.
The properties of P. ostruthium appear to have been especially highly regarded by Scottish settlers, themselves 'planted' in Ulster in the early 17th century. It was very probably they who introduced the plant to Fermanagh along with a number of other similarly valued pot and medicinal herbs. In addition to Masterwort, Praeger (1915) listed Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata), Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and Elecampane (Inula helenium) as being three other NI aliens possibly first introduced by these Scottish settlers. However, the species may have been in cultivation very much earlier than this, since seeds believed to be P. ostruthium have been excavated at an archaeological dig at a ring-fort in Co Antrim (H39) dated much earlier, at around 850-950 AD (Allen & Hatfield 2004).
P. ostruthium was always local and uncommon in NE Ireland during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it declined to definite rarity in the last 80 or 90 years (FNEI 3). Masterwort is not as thoroughly naturalised as another of these potherbs, Myrrhis odorata (see the species account on this website), and the only really recent records of P. ostruthium anywhere near Fermanagh are from along the Glenelly River and along some other riverbanks and roadsides in Co Tyrone (H36) where it is regarded as a persistent relict of cultivation (Preston & Stone 1999; New Atlas; McNeill 2010).
British and Irish occurrence
P. ostruthium can escape from garden cultivation (or perhaps parts of its large creeping rhizome are eventually discarded whenever the plant becomes too large and invasive). As the New Atlas map shows, it has become locally naturalised in mesic to rather dry soils in sun or half-shade on roadside verges and banks and hedgerows near houses, and along banks beside streams and rivers and in damp meadows in hilly country at relatively low altitudes in northern England, Scotland and N Ireland (Knees 1989; M.F. Watson, in: Preston et al. 2002). It usually becomes established in moist ground around houses and farm buildings near where it previously has been cultivated. Many of the populations appear to be very persistent and the species has not noticeably declined since the 1962 BSBI Atlas (M.F. Watson, in: Preston et al. 2002).
European occurrence
Native only in the C & S European mountains from N Portugal eastwards to Yugoslavia but introduced northwards to southern parts of Scandinavia (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1427). The closely related P. caucasium (M.B.) Koch occurs in the Caucasus mountains. P. ostruthium has been introduced into Newfoundland.
Names and uses
The genus name 'Peucedanum' is a name of an unknown plant in the work of Theophrastus, borrowed and reused (Gilbert-Carter 1964). A quite different suggestion is that the name is from the Greek 'pĕukĕdanŏn' meaning or referring to 'parsnip' (Stearn 1992). The Latin specific epithet 'ostruthium' means 'purplish', probably referring to purple stem markings or flower colour.
The English common name 'Masterwort' is a translation of a previous Latin genus name for the plant, 'Imperatoria', a name that has recently been revived and reapplied to this plant and its relatives (Prior 1879; Stace 2019). Another explanation or suggestion by Grigson (1974) is that 'Masterwort' is a translation made by Turner (1548) of the German 'Meisterwurz', meaning 'Master root', from the medieval Latin name 'Magistrantia'.
This suggests the plant was important in herbal medicine, ie a master wort of medicine. It was used as an alexipharmic, or as an antidote to poison or for warding off infection. It was also regarded as sudorific (ie a drug for inducing sweating) and, "a great Attenuater and Opener" (ie a strong laxative) (Grigson 1955, 1987).
Alternative English common names include 'Fellon-grass', Fellon-wood' and 'Fellonwort', where a 'felon' or 'fellon' is a sore place swollen with pus of bacterial origin, in humans, often affecting a finger tip, but also found on the skin of sheep and cattle and hence the veterinary connection with the plant. Examples of such Masterwort use included, "the rootes and leaves stamped, doth dissolve and cure all pestilential carbuncles and blotches, and such other apostemations and swellings" (Gerard 1633). Grieve (1931) lists the herbal use of the plant in treating asthma, dyspepsia and menstrual complaints. It was also considered effective in dropsy, cramp, falling sickness, kidney and uterine troubles and gout (Culpeper 1653). As Grigson (1955, 1987) points out, "The demand was great, and Masterwort was regularly supplied by 18th century market gardeners."
Threats
None.