Witch Hazel and Merry Christmas

 I know I said I wouldn't be posting again until Spring.... but as I was in the woods gathering pine boughs to make wreaths for my porch, I happened apon one last flower that blooms in our winter, in Western Massachusetts. Isn't it wild? It is, of course, Witch Hazel. I came across it when the moisture levels in the atmosphere were just right. The long thin petals unfurl when there is moisture in the air and they curl or crunch up when it is dry. Witch Hazel was used by the American Indians in many medicinal ways in the past, and it is still produced and sold today as an astringent. There seems to be several reasons that this flower has witch in its name. A closely related plant in Medieval times was named in old English, Wych, the word meaning bendable.... because the branches of this woody shrub are. No magic there! But it has been used as a devining rod by people who have gone by the name, Water Witches, who try to find underground water sources. They hold a forked branch of the Witch Hazel in a certain way and  expect the branch to move in a particular way when the deviner crosses over underground water. When I was a child, my father hired a deviner to find the location of water on our property so we would know where to dig a well. The man picked the spot and the well was dug and there was water..... I was allowed to try my hand at using his divining rods and did not experience any movement in the rods. I guess I just didn't have the gift. I have heard also from an old New England naturalist that in Colonial times people thought that it had witch qualities because the fruit that produces the seeds for this plant actually bursts open with sufficient force as to cast the seeds thirty feet away from the mother plant. This happens in the fall when there are dry leaves on the ground and the sound of snapping seed pods and the sound of tiny seeds landing across dry leaves made the early pioneers of New England think that they may not be alone in the woods... and of coarse in those days ... witches came to mind. Well, I just wanted to share this last beauty with you and wish all of you who celebrate Christmas a lovely Christmas .... and to all of you a Happy New Year. May we meet again in the Spring.

Where I found this : on the outer edge of the woods