Plants Woods Seeds

This page is heavily under construction and will be updated.

This is a general overview of various plants, woods and seeds and how they are used in vampire folklore.

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### Ash

* Stake Material
* Main Entry: Ash

Favored by Russian and Baltic hunters, according to Pliny the Elder all evil things fear ash-wood. Also worth noting; in Norse Mythology the fabled Tree of Life, Ygdrasil, was a giant ash tree growing from the corpse of a massive giant. Odin took wood from this tree and created the race of men. The old Norse word Asha refers to both the race of Man and the Ash tree.

### Aspen

* Stake Material
* Main Entry:Aspen

Mostly used during the middle ages when vampire hunting was at it’s height. Although an expensive wood in most regions it was chosen as a stake because it was traditionally held to be the wood Christ was executed on. (How that makes it useful against the undead I don’t know. One would think that, as it was the chosen execution method, it would aid the undead.) It continued to remain popular for stakes in certain pockets of Russia.

### Blackthorn

* Lastovo Island
* Protection and Stake
* Main Entry: Blackthorn

Hunters on Lastovo Island tend to favor Blackthorn as the only wood that can stop a vampire, local legend hold that it is closely associated with Christ's Crown of Thorns. Curiously, if hung or suspended over a vampire's grave, the Hunter won't do battle with the Undead, but the Devil himself.

### Buckthorn

* sloe / christ’s thorn
* Protection
* Main Entry: Buckthorn

A shrub in the rose family, it is traditionally seen as a power protective agent against vampires. It was often sewn into the clothing by Romanians. It was also used in Ancient Greece during the feast of Anthesteria in wreaths and bundles decorating the doorways to prevent the undead from entering their home.

### Carrot Seeds

* OCD
* Main Entry: Carrot Seeds

Carrot Seeds were commonly spread at the entrance to cemeteries and scattered over a freshly covered grave. The vampire would be forced to first count them and then eat them, one seed per year.

### Dog Rose

* Rosa Cania
* Protection, Preventive
* Main Entry: Dog Rose

A wild rose, found across Europe and Asia with long thorns and either white or pink flowers. While most breeds of rose are an effective protection and preventive of vampires, the Dog Rose is said to be especially effective. Newly dead would be buried in coffins stuffed with long stings of it to pin the vampire in. It is also useful in bundles above the doors.

### Flax

* OCD
* Preventive
* Main Entry: Flax

Another seed. This one comes to us from the Baltic coast and the dead are buried with some quantity of the seeds in their coffins to keep them busy in their graves and prevent the vampire from rising.

### Garlic

* Protection
* Main Entry: Garlic

One of the most wide-spread and highly debated bits of vampire lore. Some people call it the ‘universal weapon’ while others call it ‘utterly useless’. There are a few bits of folklore that give it some meaning to vampires other than Bram Stoker’s fiction. The two most noted are 1) Garlic Oil rubbed on the skin and 2) Raw Garlic once eaten makes the blood 'bitter’ and useless to vampires.

### Hawthorn

* Stake Material
* Main Entry: Hawthorn

A member of the rose family, it blossoms with pink flowers and small red, blue, or black fruit. The wood is widely referred to as the most powerful of stake material as it is seen as a 'symbol of good and hope’ because it signals winter’s end and the beginning of spring. The Romans considered it protective, in England it forbids a vampire from entering the home. In Ireland it is the Friend of the Sidhe and attracts them, in Bosnia those who attend funerals with drop a sprig at their location before returning home to prevent any undead following them.

### Holly

* Protection
* Main Entry: Holly

Including some 295 species of plants it has been used since roman times to prevent undead from entering a home. NOTE - this tradition continues to this day in the form of holly wreaths during christmas.

### Juniper

* Stake Material
* Curative, Protective
* Main Entry: Juniper

It’s oil is referenced as a way to treat the victims of undead attack while it’s wood it frequently used for making stakes. It’s main “deal” is that it is said to drain the power and strength from undead and supernatural. As a stake, it negates any healing or regenerative abilities. It may remove the curse or infection from those attacked. And of course Branches and twigs are often placed near doors and windows to keep the undead and supernatural out. There is a Slavic tale that says that if you put some slivers of Juniper in the belly button of a corpse, it will not rise as a vampire.

### Lemon

* Preventive
* Main Entry: Lemon

This tradition comes to us from Sarony, Germany. Put a lemon in a corpses mouth and it will not become a vampire.

### Linden

* Tilia

* Stake Material, OCD
* Main Entry: Linden

Marked with cream and gold flowers it grows mainly in the upper northern regions and it is considered by those who use it to be the equal of Hawthorn stakes. It’s seeds are also spread along walkways or on the top of graves to distract the vampire as they are able to only handle a single seed per year.

### Lovage

* Preventative
* Main Entry: Lovage

Rub down a corpse with some Lovage oil and the dead will not return as a vampire.

### Maple

* Stake Material
* Main Entry: Maple

Often described as 'useful’ though not as reliable as or popular as Hawthorn. Mostly used in Siberia and China.

### Mayflower

* Trailing Arbutus
* Protection
* Main Entry: Mayflower

Popular in North America with hairy evergreen leaves and fragrant flowers in early spring. It’s often hung over doors to keep vampires outside. When you want to protect your livestock pair it with Rowan when using it in barns.

### Millet

* Panicum Miliceum
* Preventive
* Main Entry: Millet

Often placed in the eyes and mouth or rubbed into the ears and nostrils of a corpse to prevent them turning. Just in case it is also scattered over graves and often planted along the outer walls and/or walkways and roads in and around the cemetery to keep vampires in.

### Mustard Seeds

* OCD
* that's just mean
* Main Entry: Mustard Seeds

Have you seen the size of mustard seeds? You can fit millions of the little bastards into a tiny pouch. Vampires are limited to eating just a single seed each year and must return to the same spot of seeds each night and eat every seen before they can do anything else.

### Oats

* Preventive
* Main Entry: Oats

A variety of grass, they have long been counted on as a preventive. It’s mostly the same as seeds with the exception that a would-be vampire cannot fully turn until every grain of oat they are buried with is either counted/sorted according to size, or eaten.

### Poppy Seed

* Genus Papaver
* OCD
* Main Entry: Poppy Seeds

These seeds are long associated with sleep and offer the additional advantage of getting vampires stoned out of their minds while they attempt to count them. It’s almost as bad as mustard seed as the vampire looses his count each night while he’s tripping balls. Partly because the seeds do get the vampire high.

### Rowan

* the Mountain Ash
* Stake Material, Protection
* Main Entry: Rowan

A powerful wood useful against all manor of evil; witches, vampire, spirits, bad luck, whatever. Particularly used on the Isle of Man where they would be made into crosses and hung over barn doors to protect livestock.

Rowan is known to have a variety of uses as a protective charm, for any number of evils and bad luck when crafted into various shapes and tied to a ribbon.

https://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/object/rowan-cross-bride039s-cross/

### Salt

* Preventative
* Main Entry: Salt

Not a seed or a wood, but there's just isn't enough for a Minerals and Metals list... although... there probably will be at some point. Generally it's white color is a symbol of purity. It can make safe and preserve all kinds of foods and if you get enough salt together you can mummify a body so no vampires there. There's a global thread of Salt-R-Stitions, so to say. Under the crib will protect infants, under the bed will protect you, poured at doorways and windows will seal off a house. Salt over the shoulder will dispel bad luck. A handful tossed in a coffin will prevent a vampire. Not mention that many early forms of holy water were made by boiling salt water and collecting the steam. Salting the dirt above a grave will seal the vampire inside.

### Thorns

* any and all
* Preventive, Protection, OCD
* Main Entry: Thorns

The preferred thorn changed from place to place, but all thorns are generally useful against most species of vampire. Occasionally sewn into clothing to prevent attack, they are also spread over walkways, graves and before doors. They are also used in graves to puncture the corpse and prevent transformation into a vampire. Places inside the burial clothes or mouth, scattered about the coffin, driven into the hands/face/certain joints and sometimes used in corpse binding in long vines.

### Tow

* flax, hemp, jute,wool or cotton
* preventative
* Main Entry: Tow

Sometimes described as an herb of some sort, it's really not. It's made by processing flax, hemp, just, cotton or wool into threads, rope or cloth. It's the little stringy broken bits that are left over. You bundle them up together for a variety of anti-vampire uses. A couple handfuls tossed and scattered over a grave will stop the vampire from leaving it. Bunch up a good ball of it and set it on fire to burn away evil spells.

### Vervain

* Verbena
* defence
* Main Entry: Vervain

Used in a number of folk remedies to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. There is one legend that sprang up as relating to the Crucifixion in Christian Mythology - that a bunch of it was used to staunch Jesus' bleeding while carrying the cross.Some of the old Roman stories also mention some uses for fending off evil spirits, love potions and preventing Unwelcome Dead from entering houses and causing harm during certain festivals.

### Whitethorn

* Crataegus Laevigata
* Stake Material, Preventive
* Main Entry: Whitethorn

Can be both a powerful stake and if in blossom, a flowering twig can be placed in the coffin to prevent a vampires rise.

### Wolfsbane

* Aconitum Napellus / Aconitum Lycotonum / Wolfbay
* Protection
* Main Entry: Wolfsbane

In Germany mostly, it is rubbed on doors and windows, hungover beds and woven into clothes to prevent an attack.