Scrophularia auriculata L., Water Figwort

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

This glabrous, pale, yellowish-green stemmed perennial, 50-100 cm tall, grows on somewhat wetter lowland ground than S. nodosa (Common Figwort) and was for many years known as S. aquatica. While these two rather unpleasant smelling Figwort species overlap, they do not hybridize. Typical waterside habitats of S. auriculata include the sides of ditches, river- and stream-banks and wet areas on lakeshores. It can also occur in wet woods and damp meadows.

The established strategy of S. auriculata is characterised by Grime et al. (1988, 2007) as C/CR, meaning the species (in parallel with S. nodosa) is intermediate between a straight Competitor species and a Competitive Ruderal.

Fermanagh occurrence

In the FNEI 3, Hackney et al. describe S. auriculata as being, "very rare and local" in NE Ireland, but it is really quite frequent in Fermanagh, occurring in 63 tetrads, 11.9% of those in the VC. While it is quite widely scattered across the VC, the high presence of Water Figwort around Lower Lough Erne in particular is rather surprising. However, having a more obviously calcareous shore the Lower Lough supplies the moderately fertile, neutral, lowland soils that S. auriculata prefers. The species is also known to occur occasionally on drier conditions in calcareous soils and it does so especially in western parts of B & I (Garrard & Streeter 1983; Flora of Connemara and the Burren).

Differences between S. nodosa and S. auriculata: S. auriculata differs from the more common S. nodosa in being a somewhat taller plant, rather less branched, with winged angles on the square stems and obtuse, kidney-shaped, bluntly toothed or crenate, ovate to elliptical leaves, obtuse at the tip. Sometimes the leaf blades have one or two lobes at the base (hence the name 'auriculata' (see below)) and the petiole is pale green, winged and glabrous. The leaves are dark green on the upper surface, paler beneath. It also has a fleshy, short, simple rhizome and a fibrous root system, rather than the nodular rhizome or tuber characteristic of Common or Knotted Figwort (Sell & Murrell 2007).

Flowering reproduction

S. auriculata flowers from July to September and has narrow linear bracts below each pair of cymes in the inflorescence. The two-lipped flowers, 6-9 × 3-5 mm, are borne in a narrow, cylindrical panicle. The calyx is five-lobed, each lobe ovate-obtuse with a broad, conspicuous scarious margin. The corolla is 5-9 mm, tube greenish, globose; the two-lobed upper lip is brownish-purple, longer than the green, three-lobed lower lip. Occasionally the flower is pure white. The flower is otherwise very similar to S. nodosa, with four fertile stamens, with a staminode that is sub-orbicular and entire. The style is solitary, 3.5-4.0 mm, and the stigma capitate (Melderis & Bangerter 1955; Butcher 1961; Hutchinson 1972; Sell & Murrell 2007).

Pollination

Pollination is by wasps, the flowers being favoured by Vespidae, especially Vespula vulgaris and V. germanica and less frequently visited by other insects including honeybees and various other bees. The insects are attracted by the stinking odour of carrion the whole plant emits and the flower foods. Being typical of 'wasp-flowers', S. auriculata offers insects readily accessible nectar, but releases relatively little pollen from the four fertile epipetalous stamens held close to the lower lip of the corolla. As in S. nodosa, the flowers are protogynous, the female phase being primary and lasting just two days. The previously bent back stamens then straighten and bring the anthers to the mouth of the flower above the now withered stigma (Proctor et al. 1996).

There does not appear to be any satisfactory explanation as to the function of the sterile staminode in the upper part of the flower. It is a distinctly uninteresting flap of tissue attached to the petals, unlikely to divert or delay the insect visitor inside the flower in its all-engrossing search for a food reward (Proctor et al. 1996; Sell & Murrell 2007).

Fruit and seed behaviour

The fruit is a 4-6 mm subglobose capsule with an apiculate apex (ie possessing a short, abrupt point). The numerous small seeds are pale brown to black in colour, 0.8-1.0 mm long, oblong and rugose with wavy, vertical ribs (Butcher 1961; Sell & Murrell 2007). As in S. nodosa, the capsule splits into four valves and the small, lightweight seeds are shaken out by wind or passing animals shaking the tall fruiting stem.

Since S. auriculata typically grows beside water, it is obvious that some seed will fall into water directly, or soon be washed into it following rainfall. Ridley (1930) observed and was puzzled by the fact that seeds of this river-plant sink immediately in water. He investigated and found that seeds put in water sank and remained at the bottom for about a week. The seed then germinated under water and emitted the radicle (ie the first root), but did not float for a further two days – ie when the cotyledons expanded. This experiment took place in the month of August and the seedlings involved were still floating on 13th October. Ridley concluded that it is undoubtedly due to the floating seedlings that S. auriculata disperses along the edges of rivers and other water bodies and eventually settles and roots. Another related genus that also does this is Mimulus (Ridley 1930) and other species that disperse in this way include Baldellia ranunculoides (Lesser Water-plantain), Lythrum salicaria (Purple-loosestrife) and some species of Juncus (Rush spp.) (Sculthorpe 1971).

The seeds of Water Figwort are also short- to long-term persistent in the soil seed bank (ie surviving 1-5 years or more burial), although there are only three such estimates listed in the soil seed bank survey of NW Europe (Thompson et al. 1997).

Toxicity

Like Common Figwort, the S. auriculata plant has an unpleasant odour and taste and it contains toxic glycosides that reduce milk yield if cattle graze it. This has caused at least one reported poisoning of young calves in B & I (Cooper & Johnson 1998).

British and Irish occurrence

A common plant of wet, waterside growing conditions throughout lowland Britain, the distribution plotted in the New Atlas hectad map is broadly similar to that presented in the earlier BSBI Atlas (Perring & Walters 1962, 1976), although there are considerably more records towards the north of the contiguous British range of the species (the N limit approximately represented by a line on the map between Liverpool and Durham). Most probably this expansion is due to a better, more thorough examination of previously less studied areas of England. In Scotland, S. auriculata is decidedly rare or very rare and in some sites it is considered an introduction. The species very likely reaches its world NW limit in S Scotland. While frequent in the Channel Isles, it is rare in the Isle of Man. Many records in Scotland have had to be discounted, being regarded as likely errors for S. nodosa (A. Horsfall, in: Preston et al. 2002).

In Ireland, S. auriculata is quite widely distributed (New Atlas), but is much more frequent in the S & W and is only occasional elsewhere (Parnell & Curtis 2012).

European and world occurrence

In phytogeographical terms, it is described as suboceanic southern-temperate and is present in W Europe northwards from Spain, Portugal and France to the Netherlands, Germany, then SE to Switzerland and extending further southeast to the Balearics, Italy, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and Crete. It is also represented in N Africa (Morocco and Tunisia) and the Azores (Tutin et al. 1972; Pignatti 1997; Sell & Murrell 2007). Quite how it manages to travel so widely to colonise isolated islands, such as the Azores, is a bit of a mystery, unless it is assisted by human activities.

Uses

As with Common Figwort, S. auriculata has been used in folk medicine for centuries (Grieve 1931; Allen & Hatfield 2004). See the current author's account of S. nodosa on this website for more details of typical use.

Names

The genus name 'Scrophularia' is from the Latin 'scrofule', translating as 'scrophula', the tubercular disease it was supposed to cure. The Latin specific epithet 'auriculata' means 'lobed like an ear' or 'with ear-like lobes', a reference to the one or two basal leaf lobes, despite the fact that they are not always present (Gledhill 1985).

Twenty-one English common names are listed by Grigson (1955, 1987) and 25 by Vickery (2019). Twelve of the names are unique to S. auriculata, and the others are shared with S. nodosa. As Grigson points out, similarity of names given to plants in folklore and herbalism was often due to the similarity of parts rather than the whole of different species, ie the emphasis was on the parts used in pharmacy. Thus leaves of S. auriculata resemble leaves of Betony (Stachys officinalis), so the herbalist, apothecary or patient grouped the two species and distinguished them as 'Water Betony' and 'Wood Betony'. Water Betony was another stinking herb sympathetically (following the 'Doctrine of Signs') clapped on to stinking sores, ulcers, wounds and bruises (Grigson 1955, 1987).

Another interesting name for S. auriculata was 'Crowdy-kit'. 'Crowdy' referred to a fiddle and the squeaky noise some people make when playing it. Children make a squeaking, fiddler's noise by scraping one dry stem of the plant across another and hence the connection and label for the species. As with S. nodosa, many of the names refer to the rather brownish colour of the plant, or to its strong, unpleasant smell, eg 'Black doctor', 'Brown net', 'Stinking Roger' and 'Scaw-dower' or 'Scaw dowr' in the Cornish tongue, meaning 'Water Elder', a reference to the smell (Vickery 2019).

Threats

None.

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