Tansy

[My Good Babushka]

Tansy cakes were eaten during Lent in the British Isles, mainly in the Tudor through Georgian era, because tansy, a toxic herb, was used to treat intestinal worms that many people associated with all the fish eaten during Lent. It also controlled flatulence. Tansy was also used to repel mosquitoes, flies, and ants.

Tansy was also used as a worm-warding type of embalming. It was packed into coffins and wreaths of tansy were placed on the dead. By the 19th century, tansy was so familiar at funerals that the flower was held in disdain for its morbid associations.

Also called Bitter Buttons, Cow Bitter, Mugwort, or Golden Buttons.