Great willowherb
Epilobium hirsutum
Family · Onagraceae · Harmless
The tall hairy plant of ditch edges with large purple-pink flowers and a white stigma split into four arms, like a cross in the middle of the flower.
Streams and ditches · Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known ascodlins and cream, hairy willowherb
How to tell it
An upright stem to two metres, covered in long soft hairs. Opposite, elongated toothed leaves, stalkless and running a little down the stem. Flowers two to three centimetres, purple-pink, with four inverted-heart petals and a white stigma with four arms spread in a cross. Long capsules splitting into four and releasing plumed seeds.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
Traditional medicinal use for prostate problems, shared with several species in the genus, and still sold in herbalists. Traditional use, in the past. It is among the first plants to colonise freshly cut ditches and disturbed banks.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.