# Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys)

*Bird’s eye; *Veronica**

**Known today as.** *Veronica chamaedrys* and its relatives. A low, spreading plant with small, bright blue, four-petaled flowers, common in grass and hedgerows.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

Taken now and then as a tea for coughs and complaints of the skin in the older herbals.

## What does modern science say?

No controlled evidence supports any traditional use.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **aucubin and catalpol**: iridoids
- **veronicoside**: 
- **tannins**: 
- **mannitol**: 

**Mechanism.** A mild astringent and expectorant by its iridoids and tannins: a tea of the herbals with no distinctive action and no toxicity, kept in the German pharmacopoeia into the twentieth century as a substitute for tea.

**Dose.** Safe.

**Standing.** No monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

Widely called “bird’s eye” for its flower, it carried a protective superstition in reverse: children in several English counties were told that picking it would make the birds peck out their eyes, a warning still recorded late in the twentieth century.

## Sources

- Plant-Lore, “Speedwell.”
- Wichtl, M. (2004). *Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals*, 3rd ed., “Veronicae herba.”

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*Speedwell.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-27. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/speedwell

Historical description, not medical advice.