A woodland herb of subtle charm

Allendale, Northumberland Sanicle was once an all-round herbal remedy, taken for wound healing, blood disorders, chest complaints and sore throats

Half the wood at Allen Mills is a mixture of spruce, larch, sycamore and birch. Beneath lies a muddle of fallen branches and plants that jostle one another: bramble, dog's mercury, ivy and ferns. The eastern end is a contrasting habitat. What grows here is mainly beech, giving the ground beneath a quite different feel. It is open and light and sparse of plants. Curling beech leaves lie crisply over years of rot. There are occasional clumps of woodrush, small clusters of celandines and sanicle, a plant that thrives in these less competitive conditions.

In winter Sanicula europaea stands out against the burnt orange of the leaf litter and years of personal observation show it does not die back here. A woodland specialist, sanicle has glossy leaves with toothed edges and a tracery of pale raised veins. Despite the ground being dry under the beech trees, the plant finds enough moisture from water seeping down the steep bank towards the East Allen. When in flower, the sanicle here will only be 30cm high, though in the damp verges of the Lake District it reaches twice that, as do the examples I grow in my garden.