Sages-art - 1/6/17

"Sages" by Mistress Agnes deLanvallei.

NOTE: See also the files: Laurel-Bay-art, mint-msg, lavender-msg, p-herbals-msg, sorrel-msg, sumac-msg, herb-uses-msg, hemp-nettle-art.

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This article was added to this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium, with the permission of the author. 

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
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Sages
Mistress Agnes deLanvallei 

Sage, garden sage, was a very important Medieval herb.  Its scientific name is Salvia officinalis and it is in the Mint Family (Lamiaceae), related to spearmint, lemon balm and the garden salvias.

In the US, it is frequently confused with a group of native plants also called sage, sagebrush or sagewort.  These are plants of the genus Artemisia , a large genus in the chamomile family, Asteraceae.  In the New World Artemisia includes Artemisia filifolia sand sagebrush, A. tridentata bigleaf sage,  A. ludoviciana white sage,  A.  frigida prairie sagewort and others.  There are 12 species in the Great Plains and many more farther west (Great Plains Flora Association 1986; USDA Plants database).  They are aromatic herbs and low shrubs of dry regions.  In Europe, the same genus includes Artemisia absinthium, wormwood, A. vulgaris mugwort and A. abrotanum, southernwood, among others.   There is even an important Asia medicinal herb in the genus, Artemisia annua, known in Chinese as qinghao and in English as sweet Annie or sweet sagewort. 

Thus, garden sage's relatives are mints and American sage's are wormwood relatives.  Similarity of smell and leaf color are probably responsible for the shared common name.

North American tribes used the Artemisia species in their areas for medicine and religious practices (Densmore 1974, Kindscher 1992, Lewis and Lewis 2003).  Substituting an American Artemisia for Salvia officinalis is probably not particularly dangerous since culinary herbs are used in small quantities, but, considering the powerful medicinals in Artemisia and the number of American species, most unstudied by modern medicine, probably not a particularly good idea.

Literature Cited

Densmore, Frances. 1974. How Indians use wild plants for medicine and crafts. (originally published 1928) Dover Publications, Inc. New York.

Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. University of Kansas Presses, Lawrence KS.

Kindscher, Kelly. 1992. Medicinal wild plants of the prairie. University of Kansas Presses, Lawrence KS.
 
Lewis, Walter and Memory Elvin-Lewis. 2003. Medical Botany. 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. , New York. ISBN 0471628824
 
USDA Plants database.  http://plants.usda.gov/
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Copyright 2005 by Holly Howarth. <sablegreyhound at hotmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited.  Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	Sage-art	2 of 2