Managing the Tormented Heath

Actually, it was introduced to us as the Tormented Slope but Tormented Heath has so much more of a ring to it. In fact, charred slope might have been closer, as burnt to a crisp it certainly was.

However, the ‘tormented’ had nothing to do with its scorching and everything to do with the tormentil.

Tormentil (Potentilla Erecta) is, according to my Picture This app, is a low growing perennial in the rose family with a tiny yellow petalled flower. Traditionally its roots are used as a red dye and as a base for the Eastern European liqueur, Blutwurz. It also has numerous medicinal uses.

‘As the name implies, the rhizome contains a red dye, which was previously used within the doctrine of signatures to ensure that the root was used as a remedy for bleeding. Due to its tannins, however, tormentil can also relieve inflammation in the mouth and throat, and act against diarrhea. Thanks to their wound-healing and hemostatic properties, it can also be used externally against wounds.’  Thanks to the LiveNative.com site for that.

But tormentil only thrives on acid grassland – nutrient poor sandy heathland – just what Hampstead Heath originally was. However, as in Richmond Park, the heath land has been heavily cultivated over the years so that now only small patches of the original, and now highly protected, acid grassland remain. Which is why we were being sent in to bring some order to the brambles and oak saplings which were, as usual, invading the space.

Mind you, the brambles were loaded with pretty luscious berries so it seemed a bit sacreligious to be chopping them back – although the majority of the berries were on the old wood, not the runaway shoots.

Ideally we would have grubbed out both the invading bramble and the oak saplings but the ground is so rock hard that it was all but impossible even to get a mattock in. So we made do with cutting out the long branching brambles that were making their way into tormentil territory and scything the area closer to the trees which was already over run.

And extremely hot work it was so the statutory cuppa and biccies was more than usually welcome.

On my way home via Kenwood I passed a bank of Rosebay Willow Herb. Although nowhere near as much of a menace as Himalayan Balsam, Rosebay willow herb can easily get out of hand as it self seeds and is happy with any sort of waste ground. As I walked by the sun and wind were combining to highlight its seeds setting off to colonise the next bit of spare ground it could find – and how could you stop those?….