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A little tip that really every forager should be aware of it... Plantian leaves can be crushed and then applied to a stinging nettle sting or insect bite to help nutralise it. What's more it work very, very well. I have been using them all the time of late. So forget dock leaves. Thought that worth sharing.

Thank you Andy - I'll certainly remember that one! Is it just me or have you also observed that dock tends to grow close to nettle?

They always grow right by each other.... I don't know why??? one of life's great mysteries. Plantain, on the other hand, doesn' seem to grow quite so prevalently in Scotland

another top tip...

I got a bad nettle sting on my arm so I went into the house and found one of those tubi-grip things that we always seem to have in the medicine drawer (you know the elasticated tube bandage for sore joints) So I put that over my arm to hold a few large dock leaves in place and it was perfect. By the time I removed it, a few hours later the rash was all gone and ther was no pain for the whole time the dock leaves were on it

Just had to look for a picture of plantain but now I know - brilliant!

My son & I keep getting stung by nettles down on the lottie and there's an ants nest that he will surely end up standing in one day so this tip is very very helpful, thank you

Isn't plantain like a big banana used in African/West Indian cookery? Or is that something else?

Well yes ... at least, that's what I thought.... maybe Andy grows them???

I think he means these things.

Wulf

I think that's greater plantain. My garden's full of lesser plantain - sword shaped leaves. Will that do as well?

Plus, did you know that nettles can sting through latex (surgical) gloves - couldn't find the other rubber glove so used one when picking nettles for soup.

Oh yes and they also get you through marigold gloves too. Sadly dock doesn't work on me. I have nettles everywhere, in every flower bed and and all over the veg patch cos it comes from our compost and leaf mould. They are in every pot with our home made compost e.g. my toms, aubergines and peppers, oh along with Verbena bonariensis as well - bloody weed that plant has turned out to be!!!

I do not know if lesser plantain, also called ribwort, is good for stinging nettles but it is very good for my hay-fever. I eat a few leaves and within 5 mins. my hay-fever has stopped.

Plantago lanceolata (lesser) and Plantago major (greater) have very similar medicinal properties and are interchangeable. In Germany they use the root. My kids also make a mini catapult with the flowers of lanceolata...

nettle juice works on nettle stings too - just got to get it out without getting stung

Yep I meant the plantain that Wulf showed the picture of and yes ribwort, spear, greater and lesser plantian all work.

To stop confusion Plantain - banana type things has a south american lexicographic origin and the stuff that grows everywhere here in the uk derives form the greek Planta meaning foot as it grows on ground that has been disturbed by foot steps.

Andy Hamilton wrote:as it grows on ground that has been disturbed by foot steps.

It also grows very well on ground that has been scratched to death by chickens. In fact it becomes quite monstrous in these conditions, until they eat it.

I was told that the Native Americans used to call it 'White Man's Footprint' as it was introduced to the Americas by them.

MW