Parrots beak. Lousewort. Elephantella.

With common names like these, it’s hard not to be interested in this plant.

Like so many fragrant herbs, spicebush is a carminative. Carminative comes from the Latin carminare, meaning ‘makes you fart’. Okay, so not really. But it’s actual translation comes to something along the lines of ‘remove impurities’, so in essentials it comes to the same thing.

Most folk’s idea of an herbalist falls into one of several categories. Witch. Snake oil salesman. Hippie grandmother. Mad scientist. Or some combination of these. And while some of these labels might apply (and indeed, are self applied by some folks), the truth is always more complex.