Self-heal, Prunel, Heal-all, Woundwort, Heart-of-the-earth, Carpenter's Herb, Brownwort or Blue Curls - all names for Prunella vulgaris, a native herb which can be found growing in roadsides, woodland edges, meadows and gardens across the UK.

The young leaves and stems can be eaten raw in salads; the plant as a whole can be boiled and eaten as a leaf vegetable and parts of the plant can be powdered and brewed in a cold infusion to make a beverage. Traditional medicinal uses feature in several parts of the world, including by the Chinese and the North American indigenous people.

In Hampshire, children would be warned not to pick the flowers of this plant because they belonged to the devil and he would carry the children away at night if they disobeyed.

Gerard writes in his 16th century Herbal:

The decoction of Prunell made with wine and water, doth joine together and make whole and sound all wounds both inward and ourward, even as Bugle doth. Prunel bruised with oile of roses and vineger, and laid to the fore-part of the head, swageth and helpeth the pain and aking thereof. To be short, it serveth for the same that Bugle doth, and in the world there are not two better wound herbs, as hath bin often proved.

Photo: Georg Buzin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons