This is an alphabetical listing of wort plants, meaning plants that employ the syllable wort in their English-language common names. According to the Oxford English Dictionary's Ask Oxford site, "A word with the suffix -wort is often very old. The Old English word was wyrt. The modern variation, root, comes from Old Norse. It was often used in the names of herbs and plants that had medicinal uses, the first part of the word denoting the complaint against which it might be specially efficacious. By the middle of the 17th-century -wort was beginning to fade from everyday use. The Naturalist Newsletter states, "Wort derives from the Old English wyrt, which simply meant plant. The word goes back even further, to the common ancestor of English and German, to the Germanic wurtiz. Wurtiz also evolved into the modern German word Wurzel, meaning root." Wort plants Adderwort, adder's wort - Persicaria bistorta. American lungwort - Mertensia virginica. Asterwort - Any composite plant of the family Asteraceae. Awlwort - Subularia aquatica. The plant bears awl-shaped leaves. Banewort - Ranunculus flammula or Atropa belladonna Barrenwort - Epimedium, especially Epimedium alpinum. Bearwort - Meum athamanticum Bellwort - Uvularia or plants in the family Campanulaceae. Birthwort - Aristolochia. Also, birthroot (Trillium erectum). Birthwort - Aristolochiaceae, the birthwort family. Bishop's wort - Stachys officinalis. Also, fennel flower. Bitterwort - Gentiana lutea. Bladderwort - Utricularia (aquatic plants). Blawort - A flower, commonly called harebell. Also, a certain plant bearing blue flowers. Bloodwort - Sanguinaria canadensis. Produces escharotic alkaloids that corrode skin, leaving wounds. More commonly known as bloodroot, or sometimes tetterwort. Blue navelwort - Cynoglossum omphalodes Blue throatwort - Trachelium caeruleum. Blushwort - A member of the gentian family. Shame flower. Bogwort - The bilberry or whortleberry. Bollockwort - A Middle English name for some types of orchid. Boragewort - Any plant of the borage family, Boraginaceae. Bridewort - Filipendula ulmaria and Spiraea spp., also known as meadowsweet. Brimstonewort - Same as sulphurwort. Brotherwort - Wild thyme. Brownwort - Scrophularia vernalis, also known as yellow figwort Bruisewort - Any plant considered to be useful in treating bruises, as herb Margaret. Bullwort - Ammi majus. Bishop's wood. Bullock's or Cow's Lungwort - Verbascum thapsus, the common Mullein. Burstwort - Herniaria glabra. Formerly used to treat rupture. Butterwort - Pinguicula vulgaris. Other species of Pinguicula have "butterwort" in their English names. Cancerwort - Linaria vulgaris. Toadflax. Also includes some members