The Voynich Ninja

Vitex agnus castus does not exhibit any star-related name.

There is a nice name "Siebenstern" (note that here the stars are seven in number, as are the root branches as well), but it stands for Trientalis europaea, which just does not look like this one.

Anton, you're right that Trientalis doesn't look like 16r. It is a small delicate forest plant with a whorl of leaves at the top of the stem and tiny star-like white flowers. It has a very slender stem. It looks a bit like Paris quadrifolia, but it has more leaves.

There are many plants with star in their names. I have a lot of them recorded, but the seedheads don't resemble the VMS drawing. There aren't a lot of species with clumpy seedheads with little leaflets poking out. Certain species of Stachys have the leaflets, but I don't know if Stachys has any association with stars. I'll check when I'm done with work.

Yes, plenty of those, but the best visual match of them that I was able to find (in half an hour) has been rabbitfoot I'd say it's so-so, but the problem is that "Sternklewer" does not seem to be a widespread name for it. And then, most probably, Pritzel (or his source) confuses it with Trifolium stellata.

In other words, if rabbitfoot/katzenschwanz is not the worst match for the plant, I'm in doubt what connection to stars it may have.

Here is a picture of Stachys byzantina (I have this in my garden, but this is not my pic). It's the third plant on my list for You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. but I'm hesitant to include it because of the difference in the leaves.




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You can see the leaflets come out of the thick clumps of flower/seed heads. A good match for the shapes of the leaflets.

But the leaves are elliptical (and soft, like lamb's ears). I don't know if there is an association between this and something that might be mnemonic for star-shaped leaves. I haven't come across one so far.


Cannabis and Agnus-castus are both common in old herbals, in about equal numbers. Stachys is also represented, but not as frequently.

Here's Stachys germanica from Kew Gardens. It's also called woundwort, which is why it shows up in old herbal manuscripts:



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Here's Stachys byzantina from my garden. Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of it when the seeds were ripe (too busy):