I was roller coasting my way up and down the little switchback hills between the nearby villages of Kilburn and Oldstead when I saw a blaze of yellow on the roadside. Pulling up, I got off my bike. It was common fleabane.

As its name suggests, common fleabane was once used as an insect repellent. Hung from doorways, its astringent sap was said to keep flies away. Particularly bad infestations of insects were dealt with by burning dried fleabane leaves, a bit like lighting a mosquito coil.