Life

Take on Nature: Only by grasping the nettle can we save and restore the environment

If we grasp a nettle firmly rather than brush against it, it doesn’t sting so readily
If we grasp a nettle firmly rather than brush against it, it doesn’t sting so readily If we grasp a nettle firmly rather than brush against it, it doesn’t sting so readily

In Sean O’Casey’s famous play Juno and the Paycock, set in 1920s Dublin, Joxer Daly, giving some advice on a domestic matter to his drinking companion, ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle, says, "Be firm, be firm, Captain; the first few minutes’ll be the worst: if you gently touch a nettle it’ll sting you for your pains; grasp it like a lad of mettle, an’ as soft as silk remains!"

Boyle’s amiable sidekick is imparting the figurative advice to be bold and ‘grasp the nettle’, a phrase thought to have its origins in a rhyme from Aesop’s fable The Boy and the Nettle, and also written in altered form much later, in the works of English author Aaron Hill,around 1750.

Both tell us that if we grasp a nettle firmly rather than brush against it, it doesn’t sting so readily, as its hairs are crushed flat and don’t penetrate the skin so easily. This property of the plant was also well enough known for John Lyly to have included a reference to it in his work Euphues (1578), in which he wrote, "True it is Philautus that he which toucheth ye nettle tenderly, is soonest stoung."

The thought of grasping the nettle came to me while pausing along a local riverside walk on the edge of my home village, to look at a cluster of vegetation. Dense clumps of nettle were pushing up, competing alongside cow parsley, dock leaves and buttercup under the canopy of birch, alder and rowan.

A willow warbler foraging through the lush green foliage told a tale of vigorous growth, new life and the ever-closer summer. Seeing this small breathing, living habitat, and having read the main findings from the recent Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services 2019, (IPBES) report on wildlife loss across the world, I thought of our need ‘to grasp the nettle’ of change.

This global assessment alerts us to the alarming damage we, the human population, are doing to the animal and plant kingdom of our shared Earth. Coming on the back of equally disturbing reports on human contribution to global warming and climate change, it surely is time for us to begin acting in ways which help reduce the degradation of our environment and facilitate a more sustainable future.

IPBES chairman Robert Watson says: "The overwhelming evidence presents an ominous picture", with the report stating the main damage is coming from urbanisation, deforestation and agricultural intensification.

He further says, "The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide."

On a more positive note, the report also says, that with "transformative change", at local and global level, nature can still be conserved, restored and managed sustainably.

Observing the common nettle, with its deeply serrated leaves, I thought of how this most ordinary of plants plays an important role in a small ecosystem, as a foodplant for the caterpillars of peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies which in turn are eaten by many birds, and as a host of sheltering aphids, a nutritious food source for ladybirds. Seed-eating birds will also enjoy the nettle’s autumn spoils.

Although known mainly for their sting, nettles were highly respected and widely used in ancient Ireland as a food ingredient, and for making cloth. Brachán neantóg, was known to be a nourishing porridge made from nettle mixed with oatmeal and its Ulster Irish name Cúl faiche, meaning field cabbage, reflects this culinary use. Also used as a cure in herbal medicines, the nettle is far from an ordinary plant.