Sanicula europaea L., Sanicle

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

This erect, evergreen, rosette-forming long-lived perennial herb has a stout rootstock or vertical rhizome and numerous basal leaves, 2-6 cm in diameter, palmately 5-lobed, on petioles 5-25 cm long. The whitish inflorescence consists of a number of simple umbels each about 5 mm across, often giving the appearance of a compound umbel (Sell & Murrell 2009). The plant produces isolated clumps or more continuous patches in constantly damp, shaded (occasionally very deeply shaded), woodland situations. Having said that, Sanicle is more often found in somewhat better-lit, shady conditions, eg on exposed banks and beside roads, paths and tracks in woods and glens, rather than found hiding under the very deepest shade beneath Yew trees! It is difficult to distinguish, however, whether the difference in frequency of the species is due to light, moisture, or both of these factors, since even given the heavy annual rainfall of Fermanagh, the soil under the dark, evergreen canopy of Taxus trees is generally too dry for most ground storey species to tolerate, apart that is from Ivy (Hedera helix). S. europaea is sometimes associated with slopes where there is ground water flushing the soil and it is sensitive to grazing and other forms of disturbance (Jonsell & Karlsson 2010).

Sanicle very much prefers moderately fertile deciduous woodland and hedgerow soils developed on calcareous or base-rich parent rocks, the substrate typically having a pH above 6.0 (Inghe & Tamm 1985). In woods, these soil conditions support either pure, or more commonly, mixed stands of ash, hazel, beech (planted) and oak. S. europaea can be found growing less frequently on somewhat more acidic loam substrates, down to a minimum pH around 4.5, eg on brown earth soils under oak in more upland glens in Fermanagh (Grime et al. 1988, 2007).

Fermanagh occurrence

S. europaea is common in suitable damp, shady sites and is widespread throughout Fermanagh, being recorded in 243 tetrads, 46% of those in the VC. Apart from riverbank woods and hedges, which it commonly frequents, in Fermanagh S. europaea is chiefly absent from wetlands, the more acidic peaty soils in the Western Plateau uplands, plus in the area of better farmland on fertile soils to the E of Lough Erne. In all these latter situations, even in shade, it cannot compete with more vigorous species.

Vegetative growth and individual persistence

Sanicle possesses a short, stout rootstock or rhizome that grows very slowly and displays sympodial growth, ie a shoot from a lateral bud takes over the vegetative extension growth after flowering. There is no overwintering bud and leaves are produced and develop sequentially, some of them remaining green and overwintering. Possession of the rhizome enables established plants to persist for an unknown period – perhaps or, indeed, probably, indefinitely. A pioneering 43-year population study of S. europaea was made by Prof Carl Tamm in a Swedish spruce forest (Tamm 1956; Inghe & Tamm 1985, 1988). This proved that the horizontal rhizome is extremely slow-growing, the older portion of it dying away after 5-20 years. This allows a very "slow-motion" form of vegetative reproduction to take place by bifurcation, ie growth involving branching and separation as older parts of the individual plant die off. Since the estimated half-life of an individual in this species is between 74 and 221 years, similar to or longer than the lifespan of the canopy trees above it, replacement of the individual genetic ramet is not a high priority.

Flowering reproduction

Flowering takes place in B & I from May to August. Small, globose, simple umbels are arranged in an irregular cyme, in appearance resembling a compound umbel. Two forms of flowers are borne together in each head, male ones on short pedicels and three-six sessile bisexual ones. In each flower, the five sepals are conspicuous and longer than the five white or pinkish petals. The five stamens have white filaments and pink anthers and the paired styles are divergent or somewhat curved, the stigmas capitate, and the ovary has a ± flat disc at its apex. Pollination is carried out either by visiting small flies and beetles, or by selfing (Sell & Murrell 2009). The fruit is also small, about 3 mm, ± rounded and covered with rigid, forward-pointed, hooked bristles which help it to spread on animals as a burr (Tutin 1980; Jonsell & Karlsson 2010).

Seed is the main method of S. europaea reproduction and it provides the only really effective means of dispersal. However, flower, fruit and seed production in Sanicle depletes stored resources to the extent that the plant often rests for a year or more before flowering again. Flowering is characterised therefore by being strikingly irregular (Tamm 1948, 1956). Despite their small sample of species data and incomplete meteorological records, Inghe & Tamm (1985, 1988) showed that in the Swedish forest they studied, ramet mortality, especially of juveniles, is very sensitive to summer drought, and it adversely affects the probability of the plant flowering the following year (Tamm 1948).

It was found that single ramets often have a pattern of every-second-year flowering out of phase with each other and sometimes there are repeatedly longer periods of three or four years between flowering (Inghe & Tamm 1988). These Swedish workers concluded that this interacts with the "uneven" levels of flowering resources of the plants in a population in a manner akin to "masting" in woody species like Beech and Bilberry (see the current author's accounts of these species on this website). In the case of S. europaea, however, the uneven flowering and seed production behaviour cannot be explained in terms of a seed predator avoidance mechanism. S. europaea has a high reproductive effort per flowering season, resulting in high costs of reproduction measured in reduction of subsequent flowering. If the individual ramet is not very strong, as is often the case in heavily shaded woodland settings, and the environmental conditions are not unusually favourable, one or more years of recovery was needed before the Sanicle plant could muster a new flowering (Inghe & Tamm 1988).

Seed persists in the soil and seedling mortality is, as usual, high, but growth of plants to maturity is also very slow, most plants requiring, or having to wait in a suppressed condition for between eight and 16 years before their first flowering (Tamm 1956). This makes S. europaea a classic example of an ecological 'stress tolerator' in the model of Grime (1979), most of the stress apparently deriving from shade and occasional drought periods.

British and Irish occurrence

The pattern and frequency noticed in Fermanagh is reflected throughout lowland B & I, the species being common and widespread in suitable moist, shady, neutral to mildly acid habitat conditions and absent from wetlands and extreme acid or heavily disturbed ground, including farmland. However, although there is no local evidence of it in Fermanagh, there has been some population decline of S. europaea across B & I since the 1960s (eg the New Atlas Change Index = -0.98). Presumably, this is due to losses of woodlands and of larger, older hedgerows (M. Southam, in: Preston et al. 2002).

European and world occurrence

S. europaea belongs to the European temperate element and is restricted to Europe and adjacent parts of Africa and Asia. It is widespread in wooded regions of Europe, plus S, C & E Asia and N Africa. In the Mediterranean region and in the Caucasus, it is confined to the mountains. Also present in the mountains of Tropical Africa, and in S Africa (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1383; Sell & Murrell 2009).

Uses and folklore

Sanicle is described by Allen & Hatfield (2004) as, "an ancient panacea". S. europaea was praised so highly in the old herbals that its folk use raises the strong suspicion that its many (almost universal) uses were entirely derived from the written tradition, being copied, embroidered and inflated from one herbal to another without any real world experience or evidence to back up the claims made. The main claim was that the plant could stop or staunch bleeding from wounds, ie it was considered a vulnerary. In the Scottish Highlands it was recommended for both bleeding wounds and ulcers, and in the Isle of Man for haemorrhages, dysentery, bruises and fractures. In Ireland, in Co Londonderry it was applied to cure bleeding piles, while in Co Donegal it was used to treat consumption (Allen & Hatfield 2004).

Lyte (1578), whose publication is a translation from Dutch of Rembert Dodoens' entitled A niewe Herball, or Historie of plantes, said that, "The iuyce of Sanicle drunken, doth make whole and sound all inward, and outwarde woundes and hurtes." (Grigson 1974). With such a positive reputation it was sometimes called 'Self Heal', a name today applied to Prunella vulgaris of the Labiatae, a completely separate family of plants. Grieve (1931), who, in the view of the current author (RSF), gives the most complete modern account of herbalism, says, "As yet no analysis has been made of this plant, but evidence of tannin in its several parts is afforded by the effects produced by the plant." She goes on to list uses of Sanicle as an astringent, 'alternative', such as it being given in combination with other herbs (including Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Bugle (Ajuga reptans)) "in the treatment of blood disorders". It is also recommended "for all chest and lung complaints, chronic coughs and catarrhal affections, inflammation of the bronchi, spitting of blood and all affections of the pulmonary organs".

Despite all this herbal acclamation, there is no entry for Sanicle in the B & I folklore compendiums of Vickery (1995, 2019), nor for Ireland, of Mac Coitir (2015).

Names

The genus name 'Sanicula' is from the Latin 'sano' or 'sanus' meaning 'heal' or 'whole' and best translates as 'healer' (Gilbert-Carter 1964; Gledhill 1985). On the other hand, Prior (1879, p. 206) holds that to derive the genus name directly from the Latin 'sanare', 'heal' is incorrect and impossible on the principles of etymology. Prior also points out that 'Sanicula' does not appear in Classical Latin writers and there is no such word as 'sanis' or 'sanicus' from which it could have been formed. He goes on to query whether the name has its origin in Latin or German and he concludes the odds are even. He also suggests the name may have arisen as a corruption of 'Saint Nicolas', called in German 'Nickel', ie deriving 'Sanicula' from the German 'Sanet Nickel' or 'San Nicola' (Prior 1879).

The English common name 'Sanicle' is 15th century and is derived from the Old French 'sanicle', from the medieval Latin 'sanicula', a diminutive formed from Latin 'sanus' meaning 'whole' or 'sound', both names being derived from the (most likely undeserved) past reputation the plant had as a wound herb (as detailed above) (Grigson 1974). Apart from various forms of spelling of the name, eg 'Sanikle', 'Sinicle' and 'Sanikel' (Britten & Holland 1886), there appears to be one main English common name for this species, although it does get supplementary labelled 'March Sanicle' and 'Wood Sanicle', but Grigson (1955, 1987) manages to dredge up 'Wood Elder' from Somerset.

Threats

Possible reduction in presence due to the destruction of woodlands and removal of hedgerows.

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