[OOC Notes: This is a work in progress and is meant to match as many in-game flowers with healing uses as possible or probable -- note that Tolkien gave none for elanor; the one given here for niphredil is from the game Shadows of Angmar, whose content may be added if we desire. However, my first priority is to catalog plants mentioned in LOTRO itself. I have not yet attempted to catalog fungi. Send me a message if you have anything to add that you think I missed out. Many of the herbal uses, especially for the North Ithilien flower-picking items, are taken from real-life sources. That doesn't mean you should try them outside the game!]
Being the Notes of Airesarë Celulinda "Manadhlaer,"
Lady of the Houses of Healing, Bar-en-Vanimar Chapter,
Upon Several Herbs Reecently Discussed
Alfirin
AKA: Evermind; simbelmynë; uilos
Type: Flower (perennial)
Healing application: Heals wounds and scars when made into a thick paste or poultice.
Comments: Yellow or white bell-shaped flower which does not fade throughout the lifetime of the plant. Grows on the Tomb of Elendil, or rather the peak of Eilenaer between Gondor and Rochand (the king’s casket was removed to Minas Tirith by one of the Stewards); thickly about the Barrowfield of Edoras, Rochand; and on other tombs of Men. The white flower seems more common north of Gondor as the borders stand today. May grow anywhere mallos is found, as on the fields of Lebennin.
Athelas
AKA: Asëa Aranion; Kingsfoil
Type: Flower
Healing application: Many. In hot water as aromatherapy, revives an unconscious patient. In emergency, can be chewed and applied directly to sore muscles or wounds. There is almost no injury or affliction that cannot be helped by this excellent plant.
Comments: Blue flower reportedly brought from Númenór.
Bell-o-Dale
AKA: Beardtongue
Type: Flower (perennial)
Healing applications: Several. Since the plant can be dispensed in almost any form, from foot soaks and compresses to salves and suppositories, it is helpful for prolonging the useful life of beasts as well. Most important is its wound-healing function, which is really a dual one: it stops inflammation in a wound or burn, while promoting growth of new, healthy tissue. May be boiled as a refreshing tea for coughs and internal wounds; taken as a tea over time, it will increase muscle mass in the patient. This is particularly handy for a patient who has been bedridden for some time and so lost strength in their muscles. And while it is difficult to get information on this sensitive topic, Bell-o-Dale is a sovereign remedy for the diseases Men contract through intimate contact.
Comments: Comes in many different colors, and is widely spread across Arda, usually following migrations of Free Peoples.
Bilberry
AKA: Arándano; Black-mouth; Trackleberry; Whortleberry
Type: Herb (berry-bearing bush)
Healing application: Several. Given as a tea, the ripe fruit invigorates a weak patient. A specific for blood vessel and heart disorders; leaves are excellent for inflammations, ranging from skin infections to problems of the kidneys or lower digestive area (Periannath tell us it helps stop an overly loose or sudden end-product… send a runner to Daegond with a packet of the leaves and instructions at once!) and sometimes gout or other joint afflictions.
Comments: We owe much of our knowledge about this herb to the good folk of the Shire. May the hair on their toes ever grow plentifully.
Blood of the Mountain
Type: Herb
Healing application: Potent antitoxin, especially for those made ill by rot or blight, or inadvertent ingestion of fouled water or blighted flesh.
Comments: Discovered by Elrohir before the reawakening of Skorgrim Dourhand; administered to Dwalin’s ailing men by his scouts. Oddly, although this is a fresh and wholesome plant, it is capable of growing inside caves in Ered Luin and perhaps elsewhere in Eriador.
Blood-red Footsteps
Type: Flower
Healing application: Produces unconsciousness so that surgical treatment of a patient may proceed. Care must be taken not to overdose the patient, to avoid fatal mishap.
Comments: Bright red, rather pretty but described as “vile” on close inspection, often compared to shiny drops of fresh blood. Odd, off-putting smell. Discovered by scouts of Elrohir and Elladan some 600 years after the destruction of the Refuge of Edhelion, Ered Luin, near Frerin’s Court.
Buckthorn
Type: Herb (berry is used)
Healing application: Many. Some report that the Wild-men of Dunland and Enedwaith call the berry of this plant “Holy Fruit,” and not wrongly, for it is extremely nutritious and allays hunger. Its healing uses mainly center around curing eye ills and improving sight; brightening the skin and banishing those afflictions; promoting the health of the digestive tract (note: Daegond?); and improving immunity and prolonging youth in those races who suffer disease and aging. Some allege that its use over time will improve mental clarity. If even half of the qualities imputed to it prove true, it is a gift of Yavanna indeed.
Clematis
AKA: Virgin’s Bower
Type: Flower
Warning! Even small amounts of clematis are extremely dangerous, whether the raw plant, the tincture, or a dried preparation is used! Do not eat; do not handle without gloves; do not have companion animals nearby when harvesting or preparing; and absolutely do not give to expecting or nursing mothers! Do not carry when Sergeant Daegond is likely to be present. He eats flowers.
Old herbals list this flowering shrub as a remedy for joint pain, headache, gout, varicose veins, and various skin diseases. It will certainly clean an existing ulcer and stimulate new growth of the skin, but owing to its hazardous nature, only the tiniest working dosage should be used, and only for the most intractable afflictions of the skin. It is also listed in old books as a remedy for certain intimately spread diseases that Men come down with, but frankly it seems to me more like a punishment than a remedy — and its newfound popularity on the lawns of Men seems direly foolish. The flower is pretty, but given the lung-searing action of inhaling the concentrate, one has to wonder at any Perian mother who would name her girl-child after this.
Conhuith
Type: Herb
Healing applications: Nerve tonic, excellent against sudden bouts of panic, or the creeping dread brought on by fighting the Enemy in close quarters. Even the smell of the raw flower is calming. A salve may be applied externally to a patient too frightened to reliably swallow a draught. Said to work on beasts also — a dash of the infusion in their drinking water will do.
Comments: Easy to grow practically anywhere. Window-box favorite even among those ignorant of its use; Perian superstition that it “brings luck” probably arises from its ability to dispel fear.
Dwarfsbeard
Type: Flower
Healing applications: Excellent for afflictions of the throat and lungs, whether the patient inhales the steam or swallows the tincture. Since this is one of the plants that will start a late cycle in one of the races whose females bleed monthly, do not use in a pregnant patient unless no other remedy will do.
Comments: In the spring, the bush is covered with yellow flowers, which together — especially if the bush is allowed to grow very large — resemble a bright yellow beard, as of a Dwarf lying on his back. By early summer these flowers have dropped off and the bush is green.
Elfspear
AKA (the sap): Balrog’s Blood
Type: Herb
Healing applications: Oddly, it is not the white flowers of this plant that are useful. The stalk of the plant freely gushes a blood-red sap, which coagulates into a resin. Externally, a wash made with this sap is handy for wound healing or skin afflictions; internally, a similar dilution is excellent for ulcers of the mouth and throat, and can speed the departure of lung and stomach diseases. Such a preparation also prevents unwanted blood clotting (of the sort that leads to heart stoppage or apoplexy) in a patient who must be put on bed rest for a prolonged time. In its naturally concentrated form, the sap may be given to lower fever and halt dysentery, or any excessive digestive production… remind me to dose Sergeant Daegond’s wine with this as well. It will help stop excessive bleeding in those races whose women bleed monthly, or in the females of any race who have just given birth.
Horsetail
AKA: Bottle-brush, Pewterwort, Paddock-pipe, Shavegrass
Type: Herb
Healing applications: Many. As with lhinestad, many conditions, injuries, and diseases may be relieved by preparations of this hardy plant, which grows on a tall, segmented stalk. Particularly good for skin conditions — hot and cold poultices, or a simple salve, will help draw the pus from boils and carbuncles. So good for exterior applications, in fact, that some wash with it to keep hair (or beard) shiny. May be used to great effect in lung infections that have settled in deeply. Especially good for cracked, blistered, or tired feet, making the powder a must in kits for field medics and deployed units in general.
Comments: The stalk has been used as a fine abrasive in polishing wood or jewelry metals. Do not let patients smoke pipe-weed while using this medicine as it contains some of the same properties, which will unfortunately redouble the undesired effects of pipe-weed and overstimulate the patient. Believed to be one of Yavanna’s first gifts to Arda, hence its efficacy for so many uses.
Imloth Melui Cemmenduril Rose
AKA: Blue Rose; Themodir’s Rose
Type: Flower
Healing applications: Little is known about the uses of the flower on its own except that, similar to Galadriel’s watery mirror, it may give visions of one’s own immediate future. In combination with other ingredients, it proved to be the crucial ingredient in an antidote to a poison that claimed the life of Themodir of Gondolin, a war-hero of Bar-en-Vanimar, before the poison was known to Imladris healers. Other antitoxic applications are being tested. Eldar may no longer volunteer to be subjects in such testing!
Comments: The above applies only to the blue cultivar of the Imloth Melui rose, which now grows mostly in Lossarnach, Gondor. The white rose of the same name has yet to be tested. If contact is made with Men of Gondor, we suggest sending a message to Ioreth, Houses of Healing, Minas Tirith.
Larkspur
AKA: Delphinium
Type: Flower
Use this remedy only as a last resort, if none other is available! The line between a useful dosage and a lethal one is exceedingly fine! Never give to a pregnant or nursing mother!
Healing applications: Despite the extreme toxicity of all parts of this otherwise beautiful plant, it has been used by Men in a tincture to sedate a patient and relieve insomnia. The tincture, carefully brewed, can prevent attacks of chronic lung afflictions.
Comments: Sensibly, the Men of Rochand are said to refrain from growing this plant, as cattle and horses can be killed by grazing on the plant. Allow me to repeat that: This lovely ornamental flower can slay livestock who graze on it. Its popularity in Gondor, among Men who are normally a cut above the usual Second-born, therefore boggles the mind. Please do not tell me of any Perian-lass named “Delphinia.” I do not wish to know if there is one.
Lhinestad
AKA: Heal-all, Prunella, Self-heal
Type: Herb
Healing applications: There is practically no worm, infection, or disease (in races prone to the latter) that cannot be driven from the body by a cold-water infusion of the leaves of this plant, either freshly chopped or powdered. Its pleasant taste (indeed, the whole of the plant is edible and some cultures use it as a pot-herb) makes patients quite wiling to swallow a draught.
Comments: Thought to have been cultivated long ago in Annúminas and surrounding Nenuial. Oddly, “Prunella” is a fairly popular name among female Periannath, perhaps because the plant bears a small purple and yellow flower resembling a small pansy or large violet.
Mallos
Type: Flower
Healing application: Yellow, bell-like flowers, picked young, may be made into a soothing tonic or, at high concentrations, a sleeping draught. Combine with other soothing ingredients for a more speedy effect.
Comments: Native to Gondor, and sometimes seen as a garden-herb there. Fields of Lebennin were at one time thickly strewn with this and with alfirin in its golden phase.
Mallorn
Type: Tree
Healing application: Honey made from the blossoms, in combination with other herbs such as mint, makes a pleasant, mood-elevating drink that banishes nightmares.
Comments: At present writing, grows only in the Golden Wood and Aman.
Milkthistle
Type: Herb
Healing application: Invaluable against poison, most commonly in draught or salve form. Strengthens the liver when taken daily as a powder; thus, it cushions the impact on that organ if a patient must take many, or strong, medicines for other conditions.
Comments: We have found that it does provide some relief in the hot bath or morning tea of one who has overindulged in wine or similar intoxicating drinks. Increase ration for Hammer?
Ninglor
Type: Flower
Healing application: Many. It is difficult at this time to get detailed messages from the Malledhrim, yet we managed to learn that this plant, which yet grows in the former Greenwood the Great, is excellent for medicinal use and may indeed revive a patient who is on the point of death.
Comments: Is this yellow flower responsible for the strength and size of the boars who roam where it grows?
Niphredil
Type: Flower
Healing application: Flowers, ingested, soothe a nervous temperament. Crush stalks to a thin paste to stop bleeding.
Comments: Pale white petals of almost otherworldly beauty; seems to shimmer. Grew in Beleriand; still plentiful in Golden Wood, suggesting Sindar made some effort to preserve it.
Oxlip
AKA: Primula
Type: Flower
Healing applications: Several. Excellent for headache and migraine, especially boiled in ale. Also quite helpful for cough, catarrh, and other respiratory infections. Drives excess fluids from the body; thus, much used for fever, gout, and rheumatism among the Dwarrow. An extract of the root keeps a wound clean and free of any festering or disease.
Comments: Much found in woodlands, particularly those of North Ithilien, although it is widely spread across Arda to the point that “Primula” is one of the flower-names so popular with female Periannath. Yellow flowers grow in thick clusters on a single stalk.
Pipeweed
Type: Herb
AKA: Many names for many varieties; Perianlas; Sweet Galenas
Healing application: Flowers may be prepared as salve or poultice for numbing pain. Some report flower heightens senses; the same claim is made for the absurd practice of inhaling the smoke, which perhaps accounts for Mithrandir’s and Aiwendel’s taking up the custom.
Comments: Strong indications that the inhaled preparation is addictive! Periannath will go to ridiculous lengths to retrieve a missing pouch of the stuff; varieties are named imaginatively or after originator of strain. Hír Elrond pays tradesmen good gold to keep Mister Baggins supplied.
Red Lovage
Type: Herb
Healing application: Many. Leaves, root, or seeds variously used. Shrinks tumors; gets rid of twitching and fits, and makes a general nerve tonic. Purges gas from the bowels; purgative via sweating, or inclining the patient to make water. Thus, may be combined with antitoxins to chase poison from the body. In races whose women bleed monthly, starts a late cycle.
Comments: Related to parsley. Grows in the hills of southwestern Angmar outside Aughaire, in the areas still controlled by the Trév Gallorg hillmen, and elsewhere in Eriador. Men who have passed through the “friendly” bits of Angmar remark that the plant is very like one grown in Bree-land.
Rock-rose
Type: Herb (evergreen)
Healing application: Excellent in calming patient’s extreme panic, stress, anxiety, or fright, and for inducing calm and relaxation. Almost any patient can be induced to “have a nice cup of tea” or chew a bit of the tasty dried flower, particularly if spoken to soothingly. Almost as good as conhuith for driving off the pervasive dread and terror of certain doings of the Enemy.
Comments: Recommend we introduce this into the gardens at the Houses, especially given the possibility the “black-robed Men” in the Trollshaws spoken of by so many patients of late may originate from Angmar or carry some type of sorcery very like the Angmarim use.
Silverbell
Type: Flowering tree
Healing application: Little has been translated from the language of the Hillmen, but the white, hanging bell-shaped flowers produce a sweet nectar that is both edible and a handy salve for burns. The flowers are followed in autumn by a brown fruit that is eaten by hunters and travelers when available.
Comments: Grows in the hills of southwestern Angmar outside Aughaire, in the areas still controlled by the Trév Gallorg hillmen, and by their own account, it grows across the North
Downs also.
Southron’s Crown
AKA: Skyrocket, Mithrandir’s Fire
Healing application: Several. The whole plant is cathartic and emetic, and, as such, is a first step in treating the poisoned if the material was ingested and remains in the patient’s stomach. Men steep the leaves in water until it turns a bright green; this tea is used as a blood tonic, or to clear out blood infections. A decoction will serve as a disinfectant wash for itchy skin (note to self: if some is obtained, prevail on Cuillidir to bathe with this); adolescent girls wash face and hair with this, despite the skunk smell of the crushed leaves. The plant serves handily as a poultice for aching joints, and an infusion of the roots is both a laxative and a treatment for fever.
Comments: Some names for this appear to come from the vague resemblance of the red flower to fireworks.
Spiky Mugwort
Type: Herb
Healing application: Several, and much like those of red lovage. General nerve tonic; may make an invigorating bath. (Test on Hammer? Would certainly improve odor after long deployments in armor.) Powdered leaves given to control palsy and fits. Flowers in tea will help a Man sweat out a cold. Hillmen claim the infusion (1 oz. herb to 1 pint boiling water, taken warm or cold) expels worms from the body and may have some liver-strengthening, poison-halting properties, not unlike milkthistle. Its main use, per Hillmen, is to start a late cycle in Men and other races whose females bleed monthly, but we still require testing on its other applications.
Comments: Grows in the hills of southwestern Angmar outside Aughaire, in the areas controlled by the Trév Gallorg hillmen, but as with lovage, other Men (and Periannath, who are civilized enough to enjoy a good bath) report seeing it elsewhere across Eriador.
Vetchling
AKA: Milk vetch, meadow-mat
Type: Herb
Healing application: Excellent for increasing milk supply in nursing mothers — two-legged ones may make a tea of the leaves; four-legged ones may simply eat the plant, including its purple-reddish flowers, as they do everywhere vetchling is grown as beast forage. Sentient races should avoid the seeds, as these have a reputation for being poisonous, and use a tea of leaves or flowers only.
Comments: Grows wild in the lands now known as Rochand and Gondor. All parts except the seeds are perfectly edible as a pot-herb. Its effect on the milk supply of cattle appears to have been discovered by accident, but when it was shown to aid nursing mothers also, the Houses of Healing at Minas Tirith wisely began cultivating this plant.
