White heather
White heather is widely thought to carry good fortune, especially in Scotland, perhaps because it is rare in the wild. Yet some people thought it unlucky, among them a Scottish royalist who tied it to the exile of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
What it may mean
Most of the white heather in the records was given away. A deputy headmistress at a girls' boarding school in New South Wales handed every student a sprig before final exams, saying it came from Scotland, and one former pupil wrote that she believed it always helped. A neighbor in rural Shropshire did the same for a teenager facing exams. The plant did its work through the giver: someone noticed a hard week ahead and found a small way to say so. Not everyone welcomed it, though. A grandfather in Northamptonshire, a Scottish royalist, called white heather unlucky because of its link with the exile of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Should a sprig ever reach you, the gesture behind it may be worth more than the flower.
Depending on how you saw it
A sprig before an exam
A plant-lore archive records two such exam sprigs, one from rural Shropshire and one from a school in New South Wales. Who gave you something small before a big test, and do you still remember it?
Found growing wild
On a hillside of ordinary heather, a white plant stands out at once, and finding one yourself feels different from buying it. What have you come across on your own that mattered more than anything handed to you?
Sold as a souvenir
In 2010, gift shops in Edinburgh sold glasses engraved with heather, a nod to the white-heather custom; by 2015 the compiler of a plant-lore archive found little beyond plastic sprigs. Which old token have you watched turn into a souvenir?
Why it happens in nature
Heather, Calluna vulgaris, is the low evergreen shrub that colors upland heaths in August and September. The color comes from anthocyanin pigments, and now and then a plant grows that lacks them and bears white flowers. Such plants are scattered and uncommon in the wild, though nurseries now sell many white garden varieties.
What folk beliefs say
Scotland
A Scottish bride who managed to wear a piece of white heather at her wedding could count on a happy married life, the Daniels and Stevans encyclopedia records.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 123. View the page
Australia (New South Wales)
At a Church of England girls' boarding school in New South Wales in the late 1960s, the deputy headmistress gave each final-exam student a white heather sprig, which she said came from Scotland.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), White heather (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
England (Northamptonshire)
A contributor in Towcester recalled in 1982 that her Scottish royalist grandfather held white heather to be unlucky because of its association with the banishment of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), White heather (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
England (Shropshire)
In rural south Shropshire in the late 1990s, a neighbor with a possible Scottish connection gave a teenager a white heather sprig before exams, saying it would help.
Source: Roy Vickery (compiler), White heather (Plant-Lore archive) (n.d.), www.plant-lore.com. View the page
To reflect on
Who has given you a small token at the start of a hard week, and what did it tell you about them?