The name Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) comes from the belief that it dispelled plagues and poisons.

Introduction to Wild Angelica

The popular group called ‘angelica’ is named after the Greek angelos, which means ‘a messenger’.

In Christian myth, angelica revealed itself as a cure to the plague in an archangel’s dream, and for centuries it was placed above all other healing herbs.

The English herbalist and botanist John Parkinson (1567–1650), in his work Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (Park-in-Sun’s Terrestrial Paradise, 1629) wrote:

“it is so goode an herbe that there is no part thereof but is of much use.”

There are around thirty species of angelica, but it is garden angelica (Angelica archangelica) that is most mentioned in old and new herbal texts.

The wild angelica (Angelica sylvestris) with its tall, furrowed purplish stalks and delicate umbels of flowers that, as Geoffrey Grigson says, “seem to have been dipped in claret”, is an almost forgotten plant.

Its species name Sylvestris means “wild, of or from woods or forests”, yet it is angelic by association to A. archangelica and has acquired many archangel names through time.

Wild angelica (A. sylvestris) is a native British species, but by the days of the great herbalists, such as Parkinson, Gerard, and Culpeper, the species known as garden angelica (A. archangelica) had made its way across Europe (originating from Syria according to some authorities) to cooler, northern climates as far as Lapland and Iceland.

Wild angelica

Common Name

Wild Angelica

Scientific Name

Angelica sylvestris

Family

Apiaceae

Botanical Description

Stem 2-3 feet high, slightly downy above, purplish ; leaflets equal, ovate-lanceolate or ovate, often the at base, incisoserrate not decurrent, lateral ones rather unequal at the base; flowers pinkish-white, with an involucre of about three leaves.

5 thoughts on “Traditional and Modern Use of Wild Angelica”

Love this! I’ve never grown A. archangelica as I thought it was just for candying but have been noticing A. sylvestris coming into flower and admiring the purple stems. Great to know I can eat it too ~ will be collecting seeds this autumn! What is the plant that looks just the same, growing in the same situation, but green stems?