๐๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ ๐จ ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐จ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ๐๐๐ฒโฆ
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก
Yesterday saw the hop, a true relative of ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐; today we have ๐ธ๐ข๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข๐, Hemp-agrimony, whose claim to kinship is just the leaf shape. Itโs a daisy, not in the hemp family at all, despite its English common name.
It does, however, have a remarkable tale to tell, taking us back over two thousand years to the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator, whose lands were in Asia Minor, on the south coast of the Black Sea.
Mithridates, like many monarchs, was fearful of assassination, particularly by poison. He was said to ingest small amounts of a toxin and gradually increase the dosage to gain some level of immunity. This technique is known to this day as โmithridatismโ and he was reputed to have used this plant, or one very like it, medicinally, particularly against poisons.
After defeat by the Romans, he fled to his lands in modern-day Crimea. Appian, writing a couple of centuries later, relates that Mithridates took poison with two of his daughters. They died, but his dose failed because he had accustomed himself to poisons. He then asked a Gallic officer named Bituitus to kill him with a sword.
It isnโt even an agrimony; those belong to the rose family.
So that fluffy pappus, looking like cotton candy, awaiting the wind to carry the seed, has a tale to tell, carried through the centuries.