Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris, mint family, Lamiaceae) is a low creeping mint with pretty purple flowers. It spreads, so it can become an annoying weed if you want a lawn that is all grass. The flowers feed bees and butterflies, so it helps support the insect community, if you don't mind nongrasses in your lawn.
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| self-heal, Prunella vulgaris (from above) |
Self-heal is one of the few plants that experts consider native "around the Northern Hemisphere." The trend in the last several decades has been to separate North American plants from Eurasian plants that were formerly considered the same species. However, self-heal is one of the few where, although it is found from China to Ireland and from Virginia to California, it is all considered the same species, Prunella vulgaris. It may help that no one seems to have asked whether it is one species or many since 1913. People acknowledge two subspecies of self-heal, Prunella vulgaris lanceolata and Prunella vulgaris vulgaris. Canadian sources consider the first native to Canada and the second exotic. Apparently the same is true in the United States.
There is no question that self-heal was brought by settlers from Europe. It has a long history in Eurasia as a medicinal plant. (All across the continent, from early European medicine to Traditional Chinese Medicine). The name self-heal, or the alternate common name all-heal, refer to that. It is packed with antioxidants, antiviral, and antibiotic compounds that sooth or treat a wide variety of conditions. It grows well in gardens and paths. Colonists took it with them all over the world, and the adaptable plant grew and spread. It has escaped and naturalized from the Americas to Australia and South Africa as an adaptable little exotic.
But in North America, experts concluded there was a native self-heal here before colonization. So it is both native and introduced. [Prunella vulgaris vulgaris, native across Eurasia when seen in North America lies flat on the ground and has leaves wider than they are long. Prunella vulgaris lanceolata, native to North America, is more upright and its leaves stand up rather than lie along the ground.]
It is possible that self-heal was growing all across the Northern Hemisphere when the North America separated from Eurasia, but most plants that divided at that time have formed distinct New World and Old World species (magnolias, for example). Probably it migrated from one continent to the other more recently than when the continents split, either carried by birds or by people. Self-heal's small seeds can get caught in animal fur or carried along in mud on feet or shoes. Lying on the ground around the plant, the seeds will wash away to new locations in a strong rain. I don't think anyone has studied the problem of how self-heal came to be all across tne Northern Hemisphere before Columbus. Self-heal and other important medicinal plants may have come to the Americas with the first people, Native Americans. Humans have a very long history--back to Neanderthals and before--of recognizing and using medicinal plants and migrating groups surely paid attention to medicinal plants, either carrying seeds or spreading them accidentally. (And, thus, though it is one species around the world, there are Old World and New World subspecies. But subspecies freely cross, so these varieties in North America merge in some locations.)
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| A self-heal plant |
The common name self-heal was explained in the 1600s by Culpeper "Here is another herb of Venus, self-heal, whereby when you are hurt, you may heal yourself" (p. 146). That's the predominant common name, but you can also find it referred to as all-heal, carpenter's herb, brunella, woundwort, blue curls, and heart-of-the-earth, touch-and-heal, wood sage and probably many other local names, The scientific name Prunella appears to be a common name from before scientific names were established, prunella and alternately brunella, from German. These names were used interchangeably in southern Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries and were believed to be based on braun, which meant purple in South German, and possibly Bräune, quincy, which self-heal was supposed to treat. The species epithet, vulgaris, means common: there are other species of Prunella, this is the common one.
Self-heal was believed to help a wide variety of ailments: wounds and ulcers, bleeding, fevers and colds, infections, digestive issues, and more. Proponents cite a variety of antiviral, anti-inflamation, anti-bacterial compounds in its roots, leaves and flowers. However, it is not included in the modern medicinal plant books I have, even as far back as 1892, and the Physicians Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines lists all its medical uses as "unproven." Possibly, as this plant was for self care, European and American herbal medical practitioners replaced it with stronger, better-targeted treatments.
It is a minor herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the dried plants as a tonic and to reduce fevers.
Native Americans used self-heal for many of the same ailments: to heal wounds, as a heart tonic, for fevers, as a tonic for children, and more.
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| self-heal |
Self-heal has a very low toxicity. It is considered edible and both Europeans and Native Americans sometimes ate it, boiled or raw. Or dried it and made a tea. Too much self-heal eaten can produce an upset stomach and for some people it creates skin rashes. It does not appear in my books on foraging for wild plant foods. The people online who said it was edible generally went on to recommend self-heal tea as an all-purpose tonic, not provide salad recipes. It is in the mint family and mints are generally edible, though not necessarily tasty. This suggests that you could eat it if you wanted but there are other tastier plants to gather and for the authors to write about.
I can find surprisingly little folklore.
In England, nursemaids in Hampshire instructed children not to pick self-heal flowers because the plant belonged to the devil, who was angered when the flowers were picked and would come at night to steal the offending child.
In Ireland it was used to treat people suffering from a sudden blow and sickly children, either of which might be 'fairy-struck". And it was one of seven herbs that nothing natural or supernatural can injure; for best protection, gather it at noon on a bright day, near the time of the full moon.
The plants creep and spread, sometimes turning a whole lawn purple in the spring. When it is not in flower, you barely notice it. Some varieties can flower when only 2 inches tall--below the blades of a lawn mower. Others will grow to five or six inches. It can make an attractive ground cover. The line between healthy ground cover and invasive weed has always depended on the property owner's attitude.
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| Self-heal throughout the lawn. |
Everywhere it grows, its flowers attract and feed lots of bees and butterflies.
In North America, larvae of clouded sulphur butterflies (Colias philodice, Pieridae) and the gray marvel moth (Anterastria teratophora, Noctuidae) consume it as their host plant. Different lepidopteran larvae have been reported to feed on it in Europe. The list is short which suggests self-heal has not been studied much, because the plant is widespread and common enough to be an attractive host plant to a variety of insects.
Once you would have noted self-heal, to gather and dry it in case of illness, today it is mainly a pretty spot of purple among the green. Still available for tea, though, and still pretty.
Comments and corrections welcomed.
Note: sp. is a botanical abbreviation for "species" singular. To indicate several unspecified species, "spp" since the plural of species is species. The abbreviation "ssp" means "subspecies." Subspecies are recognizeable groups within a species, often geographical. They can cross and produce viable seeds, but for ecological or geographic reasons have enough different characteristics to be identified.
References
Briggs, K. 1967. The Fairies in Tradition and Literature. Routledge Classics. London.
Culperer, N. 1981. Culpeper's Complete Herbal and English Physician. J. Gleave and Son. Manchester edition. Harvey Sales, Magna Books Leicester, UK. Culpeper wrote in the 1630s. His books were printed and reprinted. This edition is a reprint of a 1826 J. Gleave and Son edition.
Fernald, M. L. 1913. The indigenous varieties of Prunella vulgaris in North America. Rhodora. 15: 179-186.
Grieve, M. 1932. A Modern Herbal. Dover Press reprint, 1971. Dover Publications, New York.
Gruenwald, J., T. Brendler and C. Jaenicke, editors. 2007. PDR for Herbal Medicines. 4th edition. Thomson Healthcare Inc., Montvale, New Jersey. Mac Coitir, N. 2016. Ireland's Wild Plants. The Collins Press, Wilton, York.
Li, S.-C. 1973. Chinese Medicinal Herbs. Dover Press, New York.
Milspaugh, C. F. 1892. American Medicinal Plants. Dover Press reprint, 1974. Dover Publications, New York.
Moerman, D. 1999. Prunella vulgaris Native American Ethnobotany database. link (accessed 3/29/26)
Pan, J., H. Wang and Y. Chen. 2022. Prunella vulgaris L. – A review of its ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, quality control and pharmacological effects. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 13:903171. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.903171
Reid, D. 1995. Handbook of Chinese Healing Herbs. Shambala Press. Boston.
Stearn, W. T. 1996. Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. Cassell Publishing, London.
Vickery, R. 1995. Oxford Dictionary of Plant Lore. Oxford University Press. London, UK.
Young-Matthews, A. 2012. Fact Sheet for Lance Selfheal, Prunella vulgaris L. ssp. lanceolata (W. Bartram) Hulten. USDA NCRS Plant Fact Sheet. link
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