nichepoetryandprose

I bear weeds no ill-will.  When I pull them in my garden, I am just helping my vegetables to get an edge in the great competition.  Also, as you now know, I consider many ‘weeds’ to be edible and delicious.  But, in one case, I cheerfully stomp on the weeds and consider the benefits to outweigh the sorrow.

When I went to meetings at our provincial Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries, I had to follow a wide path of concrete slabs to get to the door of the building.  In the cracks between the slabs grew a small, rather pretty weed.  I loved to step on this weed, or pick it, to smell its fragrance.   The weed is Pineapple Weed and, crushed, it smells just like pineapple.  Its scent is also reminiscent of Garden-camomile, or Hay-scented Fern.

Pineapple Weed grows along roadsides and in waste places, wherever the soil is disturbed and competition from other plants is low.  It is an inconspicuous cousin of Garden-camomile (Anthemis nobilis L.) and looks a little like Camomile except the flowers have no white ray-florets.  The leaves of Pineapple Weed are very finely divided and feather-like.

The generic name Matricaria comes from the Latin word matrix, meaning ‘womb’, a tribute to its reputed medicinal properties.  The specific name matricarioides means ‘like Matricaria’ since it was originally considered to be another species.

My husband tells me, as a child, he used plants of Pineapple Weed as miniature trees when he played with his Dinky cars!

To make a pale yellow, pineapple-scented tea, steep the fresh or dried flowers of Pineapple Weed in hot water.

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Matricaria

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two in the morning

and the canister of Camomile

yawns empty

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crush Matricaria

steep a sprinkle of flowers

in water, tea the color

of straw

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surround of pineapple

hay-scented fern

sleep

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©  Jane Tims  2012