Close up of the spoon-shaped petals of scurvy-grass. Photo via PlantNet.
Good morning. Today is tridi, the 23rd of Ventôse, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate la cochléaria, an herb used to cure sailors of scurvy.
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Also known as scurvy-grass, spoonwort is a sailor's salty friend for many reasons that we'll get into in a moment, but its salt-friendliness is the main cause of its rapidly spreading habitat in Great Britain. Once mainly a coastal grass, the creation of roads into inland highlands have given spoonwort a path to the interior. It's not just the tires of passing cars that pick up and spread the seeds, although that's a major component. It's the salt used to keep roadways clear in the winter, when these seeds germinate. That salt destroys all other plants, but not the hardy scurvy-grass, meaning that roadways across Britain are now lined with the herb.
Okay, let's talk about scurvy. The popular knowledge of scurvy largely begins and ends with pirates. They got it from not eating oranges. Captains started stocking oranges on their boats. Scurvy went away.
Pressed for a little extra, people likely are aware that scurvy is a vitamin C deficiency, which is why citrus is the whole cure. But there are a few details that matter here. First, let's look at why scurvy's even an issue for people, and second, we'll look at how the "pirates got scurvy because were too stupid to eat fruit" story covers up a long history of high seas labor abuse by various European regimes and companies.
