Culture factsheet
Shakespeare Plants (I-P)
A list of some of the wild plants and trees in the works of
Shakespeare, based on Savage (1926)
Insane Root (it is not clear but Savage believes that it may have
been Henbane—Hyoscyamus niger)
Ivy (Hedera helix) - Found in The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2
The Comedy of Errors, Act II, Scene 2
The Winter’s Tale, Act III, Scene 3
Knot-grass (Polyonum aviculare) - Found in A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,
Act III, Scene 2
Larks Heel (Consolida ajacis) - Found in The Two Noble Kinsmen, Song,
Act I, Scene I
Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis) - Found in Love’s Labours Lost,
Act V, Scene 2
Lavender (Lavendula species) - Found in The Winters Tale, Act IV,
Scene 3
Lillies & Flower-de-luce (The Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum) is not
native or naturalised in Britain but there are several species which are
native or naturalised – it is not always clear which plant Shakespeare is
referring to – Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), Martagon Lily
(Lilium martagon);
Snowdon Lily (Lloydia serotina); May Lily
(Maianthemum bifolium) - Found in King John, Act III,
Scene I; Loves Labours Lost, Act V, Scene 2; A
Midsummer-Nights Dream, Act III, Scene I; Macbeth,
Act V, Scene 3; A Winters Tale, Act IV, Scene 3; King
Henry VI, Act I, Scene I
Lime, Lind (Tilia cordata) - Found in The
Tempest, Act V, Scene I
Long Purples (unclear but Savage suggests Orchis species) - Orchids were originally
called Satyrion by early botanists because they were thought to be food for the
satyrs, which fuelled their sexual excesses. Found in Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 7
Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 7 (Gertrude)
‘There
is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garland did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodius lay
To muddy death.’
Mallows (Malva sylvestris) - Found in The Tempest, Act II, Scene I
Marigold (Savage believes that it is pot marigold (Calendula officinalus)
rather than corn marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum) because of the
context) - Found in Sonnet 25; The Winters Tale, Act IV, Scene 3;
Pericles, Act IV, Scene I; The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act I, Scene I
Medlar (Mespilus germanica) - Found in Measure for Measure, Act IV,
Scene 3; As You Like It, Act III, Scene 2; Romeo & Juliet
Mistletoe (Viscum album) - Found in Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 3
Mosses - Found in Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 3;
First Henry IV, Act III, Scene I; Timon of Athens, Act
IV, Scene 3; Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene 2
Mushrooms— Found in The Tempest, Act V, Scene I
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene 5
Marjoram (Origanum vulgare) - Found in Alls well that ends well, Act IV, Scene 5;
The Winters Tale, Act IV, Scene 3
Mint (Mentha species) - Found in Alls well that ends well, Act IV, Scene 5;
The Winters Tale, Act IV, Scene 3
Mulberries (Morus nigra) - Found in Coriolanus Act III, Scene 2; A MidsummerNight’s Dream Act III, Scene 1; Act V, Scene I; Two Noble Kinsmen Act IV, Scene I
Nettles (Urtica dioica although Savage 1926 believes that the nettles in the
garlands of Ophelia and King Lear may have been dead nettle) - Found in
Coriolanus, Act II, Scene I; Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 7; King Lear, Act IV, Scene 4;
King Richard II, Act III, Scene 2; King Henry IV, Part I, Act II, Scene 3;
The Winter’s Tale, Act I, Scene 2; Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 4
Oak, Acorn, Mast (Quercus species) - Found in Measure for Measure, Act II,
Scene 2; The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene 4; As You Like It, Act IV,
Scene 3, & Act II, Scene 1; Trolius & Cressida, Act I, Scene 3; Julius Ceasar,
Act I, Scene 3; The Tempest, Act V, Scene I; Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene
3; As You Like It, Act III, Scene 2; Coriolanus, Act I, Scene 3
Oats (Avena species) - Found in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I
Oxlips (Primula elatior) - Found in A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Act II,
Scene 1 & 2; The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 4
Pansies (Cupid Flower, Love-In-Idleness) (Viola tricolour) - Found in
Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5; The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene I;
A Midsummer-Nights Dream, Act II, Scene 2 & Act IV, Scene 1
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1 (Oberon)
‘Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower, the herb I shew’d thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.’
Pear (Pyrus communis) - Found in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene 5
Pignut (Conopodium majus) - Found in The Tempest, Act II, Scene 2
Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) - Found in The Taming of the Shrew, Induction,
Scene 2
Pine (Pinus sylvestris) - Found in The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I
Plantain (Plantago species) - formerly used medicinally, it was one of the nine
sacred Anglo-Saxon herbs. Found in The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act I, Scene 2;
Romeo & Juliet, Act I, Scene2; Loves Labours Lost, Act III, Scene I;
Trolius & Cresida, Act III, Scene 2
Plum, Prune, Damson (Prunus species) - Found in King Henry VI, Part II,
Act II, Scene I; The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene 5; Act I, Scene I
Poppy (Savage believes it may be Opium Poppy rather than Field Poppy) Found in Othello, Act III, Scene 3
Primrose (Primula vulgaris) - Found in Venus & Adonis, 151;
Cymbeline Act II, Scene 3 & Act IV, Scene 2; The Winter’s Tale, Act IV,
Scene 3; A Midsummer-Nights Dream, Act I, Scene I; Hamlet, Act I, Scene
3; Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3
Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3 (Ophelia)
‘Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to
Heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.’