Wildflowers of the Stuttgart Area
Clematis vitalba
| Family : | RANUNCULACEAE (Crowfoot/Buttercup Family) |
| Common Name (UK) : | Traveler's Joy |
| Common Name (DE) : | Gewöhnliche Waldrebe |
| Common Name (FR) : | Clématite des haies |
| Habitat : | Woodland margins, scrub and thicket and hedgerows on calcareous soils. |
| Remarks : | The leaves and flowers are stimulating and tonic. In olden times wayfaring people used to pluck traveler's joy from the hedges and use it as tea, and as a 'pick-up' when infused in their bottles of ale, also as a headache cure: a head-cloth was soaked in the cold tea and bound over the brow; headaches were inevitable with long hours on the dusty roads in the age of foot or horse-back travel. Externally, the herb was used for treatment of all kinds of sores, including travel blisters on the feet, saddle-blisters on buttocks, festering bites from flies, and as a lotion to remove dust from traveler's eyes. The leaves, used as a poultice, had some reputation as an external treatment for tumours. Use. Treatment of all aches and ailments of the wayfarer, from headache and inflamed eyes to blistered and aching feet and bites and bites and stings of insects. Internally as a tea, externally as a lotion and as a poultice. |
| First appearing : | June |
| Abundance : | Abundant |
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