According to Mick on Time Team, nettles are attracted to potassium, which is found in some areas as a result of ancient dung heaps or toilet pits. This means you can find a lost settlement in a forest by looking for nettles.
For Hermetic magi, finding nettles is ridiculously easy: Hunt The Wild Herb, for example, will detect nettles. This means magi seeking fallen covenants, or other sites of abandoned human habitation, can find a clue with the aid of a spell weak enough for most to cast spontaneously.
Games From Folktales 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Herbs_Charm
LikeLike
Flowers, herbs, and other cultivars (which actually includes nettles) are good signs of past habitation. If magi know that a covenant was lost in a particular area searching for these could be very helpful, but otherwise they’re apt to find a lot of mundane ruins. I wonder if there are any plants that would be more specific to covenants or other magic sites, either a mundane plant of particular importance to magic or something that is attracted to these sites when they fall.
LikeLike