Who wants to read about Chamomile when the world is falling apart?
On rare occasion, I struggle with writing a plant love letter. It’s not because I don’t love and admire the plant so very much, or else I wouldn’t write them a letter at all. As you’ve probably heard me say, I have a strong calling to publish dozens of plant love letters to serve future generations and am devoted to doing it asap.
More often than not, these letters mostly write themselves. All I have to do is show up, with a willing and good attitude. When I re-read them, I don’t remember writing it. There’s a beautiful flow that’s cocuring. My muse is getting the attention she longs for.
But you know when you are in a mood, a headspace that is heavy and uninspiring, and all the things your best self knows would be good for you to do, you just don’t feel like doing any of them? I am not talking about despair, but about being in a funk. Ugh. Sometimes you have to just ride that wave and give yourself a break until the inspiration comes back, but sometimes the best thing to do is push on through the veil and fake it till you make it.
That’s what I did with this one, this letter to Chamomile, and I am glad I did so, because once I got going, the negative mood vanished and the sweetness of this little humble plant took hold. The voice that kept saying, “Who would want to read about Chamomile when the world is in a state of unraveling?” was countered with one that said, “You are what you give your attention to.”
Me getting lost in the Chamomile was just the thing that raised my vibe and brought me back into balance by opening my heart, and that is always without exception the place from where I can best be of service to God, myself, my family, my community and the world. As Ram Das said, “How do you open your heart? You start by loving that which you can already love and expand from there.” Maybe you getting lost in reading about Chamomile is the thing that will open your heart today? If that maybe is a yes, then this letter is for both you and Chamomile. I thank you so much for being here, dear one, and praising creation together!
Mary Morgaine Squire
6/7/25
Under a waxing apogee moon invisible to me for days because of clouds
~Love Letters to our Plant Allies~
Chamomile
Matricaria chamomilla (recutita)
Asteraceae
Dear Chamomile,
Listen to Mary Plantwalker read a love letter to Chamomile
How easy it could be to overlook your powers simply because you are so humble about them. I live in a world where the more loud, dramatic and pushy something/someone is, the more attention it gets. We have these sayings like, “If it bleeds, it leads” or “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” and you, dear Chamomile, just go about your quiet, feathery-fine business, downplaying your significance, weathering out the bold moves of the other sensational plants and noisy mammals.
One of our oldest herbal pharmacopoeias by Nicholas Culpeper says of you “Chamomile is so well known everywhere, that it is but lost time and labour to describe it.” I suppose that was meant to be a compliment, but we all know that praise and attention are living things that never get old. So I want to tell you, here now as I read this letter to your very plants flowering in the garden, and to this human audience who welcomes reminders, about how we see you and love the big blessing that you are!
Earth Apple. That’s your given name that stuck because of your scent— so apple-y. Chamai or kamai, meaning on the ground, and melon, another word for apple—the Khamaimēlon plant. This name somehow morphed into the word Chamomile (spelled without the h in Britain.) We also call you scented German Chamomile, Mayweed and Maythen, an old Saxon name, as well as Manzanilla, Spanish for “little apple.” Birthed in the Old World and carried over to the New, where your species discoidea, aka Pineapple Weed, naturally resides, we’ve come to globally embrace your medicine.
Let me pause right here to say that people get confused by your similar plants, especially differentiating between German and Roman Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile.) This letter is to you, dear German Matricaria chamomilla Chamomile, with just a nod to the double petaled short, hairy, dense mat of Roman Chamomiles and other Matricaria species;-)
You are distinct just by being yourself- an annual, self-seeding, 2-foot high, multi-branched, full-sun seeker with conical, yellow disc flowers with white rays atop fern-feather leaved stems. You look like a Daisy for a fairy. I have noticed that you are so light in nature that your entire plant will just jump out of the ground overnight. It’s like you intend to float or fly away, and sometimes I have to beg you to stay, by adding more soil around your base and pressing on you in hopes to root you back down to earth.
That golden, conical receptacle of small tubular florets is where your medicine is concentrated and eventually transforms into a fine seed. If we want to harvest you, best to do it promptly upon flowering, and to touch your centers as minimally as possible. I wait till a sunny day when the dew has dried, and revel in your delightful smell that ironically doesn’t caution me of the bitterness in your taste, then pick your flowers one by one, slowly and methodically. I have seen the rakes used to harvest your flowers on big farms, for who would pay the price it takes to pick you individually, the way you were intended?
I hold my intimate harvest of you so very close and know that a large part of your gifts come from the slowing down and being in full presence with you. The sacred pause needed if we want to keep you both blooming longer and dry you for tea, combined with the experience of your fresh aroma, are priceless. I hope more people will grow a plant or two of you and engage to receive your gifts that a Sleepytime Celestial Seasonings tea bag will never be able to provide.
Chamomile, it is known that you even help the plants around you, a greatest of companion plants, and will heal sickly plants if you are growing nearby. Some people though, and a rare few, but certainly worth mentioning, have allergic reactions to you and exhibit sensitive skin, or nausea, itching, or swollen throat. You can cause or heal allergies, produce or reduce symptoms. Other members in your Asteraceae family can cause this too, so it is our responsibility to take note of how of we personally respond to you.
But overall, the way you make us feel is calm and collected. Once we have cried out everything we needed to get out, let us drink you to recalibrate. Seriously. You will shift the weary energy into comfort. Qualm our night terrors. Wash away anxiety. Take us down from our ‘edge.’ Be there when we get all emotional and gently sedate the overwhelm. I mean, who doesn’t need your mild and effective powers these days?
When kids get all wound up, you are one of the best suited herbs to help unwind. I bathed my children in an infusion of you to keep them calm and happy, and always turn to you when they have a fever. You are safe to administer to babies with colic, and as a carminative, relieve gas and indigestion at any age. Working simultaneously on the digestive and nervous systems, all kinds of symptoms and illnesses are allayed by your properties.
It’s as a tea or tincture that we best ingest your gifts. May we remember to cover the tea when poured, as the volatile oils will escape otherwise, like Azulene, that striking blue oil compound. This Azulene contains many therapeutic qualities, including being anti-inflammatory, and once extracted will turn yellow upon oxidization. It is the anodyne compound in your floral medicine cabinet, giving you the capacity to take away irritability that causes headaches and then bring the ease needed to induce sleep.
Your latin name Matricaria speaks to your mother-like gifts of soothing so many things! As an antispasmodic, you ease cramps. You are also specifically suited to helping spleen issues, the ones that give us a stitch in our sides. Skin disorders, fungal infections, hives, bites and stings, sties, psoriasis, and mysterious eruptions respond well to a poultice, fomentation of your flowers. We can also bathe with your infusion to ease pain and bring relief.
You are your own apothecary with multiple medicines! Let’s make you into a mouthwash for gingivitis; a salve for skin ailments; a steam inhalation for headaches; a hair rinse to both soften and lighten; an eye compresses to take away puffiness; and a yellow dye from all of your aerial parts.
The mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II had your pollen in its stomach and the body was covered with your oil! This makes me wonder how much of your gifts we have forgotten, that you would be held in such high esteem to coat the royal dead. Hildegard of Bignen’s account of your miracles might have influenced Beatrix Potter to give your tea to Peter Rabbit. You may be one of the most popular herbs because of that story. I had even heard of you because of that story, and you were the first cup of tea I ever had! I was at a friend’s home and had an upset tummy, and she gave me Chamomile tea and it worked. I was hooked. I owe you a HUGE thank you, Chamomile, for bringing me into the herbal tea world.
Some say not to use you in pregnancy, others disagree. I drank you almost every night during mine. It was an evening ritual to help me relax. To soften. I love combining you with Lavender. You are pleasant, safe, and gentle, reminding us that in order to be effective, we don’t have to be harsh.
I believe that you also strengthen the spirit, and that is a very important job to hold.
Chamomile, you give so very much to us that I hope I’m able to reciprocate even if just a little, with this love note to you, by tending your plants, by bringing you into my life and by talking respectfully of you.
With a light heart,
Mary Plantwalker
Weaving Community~
~There are two nature-based artists that I wanted to share with you this week because they bring me so much inspiration…
~Maria of Daughters of the Red Sunset has led many a workshop in natural dyeing and ecoprinting and has a shop of naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, bitters, elixirs and teas, perfumes, notecards and natural inks- and is an amazing knitter to boot! She creates with intention and has an older series of youtube tutorials showing you how to do the same.
-I still have this children’s skirt that my old friend Lupen Grainne made my daughter in 1999 and cherish everything that I’ve seen Lupen create with her gifted eye and hands. She has a jewelry line called Artemisia Designs and jaw dropping photography and art prints that you can even purchase as greeting cards. Lupen is such a lover of the natural world and makes such beauty with her creations!
Week 22 of the “Eat Something Wild Everyday”
2025 Challenge
Hey there, wild thing. Here’s to ya eating raw or cooked food that grew itself voluntarily!
Interested in joining the every third Saturday Earth Devotion Gatherings in the Asheville area?
I love reading your love letters 🥰
I just wanted to say that I am from the UK and we definitely don't drop the "H" in chamomile. I've never seen it written without apart from by a London company who makes bedding.
Thank you as always. I am so glad the funk did not keep you down very long. As a wise woman and Mother, we know that our spirits will not keep us from moving forward especially in this time of transformation for this country. Our energy must be sustained. It will be renewed constantly by the photosynthesis of our elements in our beings. Bless you!