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===== Hordeum murinum (wall barley) ===== | ===== Hordeum murinum (wall barley) ===== | ||
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- | * Plantago major(Broad-Leaved Plantain) | + | |
+ | Wall barley is an annual grass common in central, southern and eastern England, and scattered elsewhere. It is found on waste and | ||
+ | rough ground and barish patches in rough grassland. It occurs on the margins of cultivated fields. | ||
+ | Distribution is related both to the availability of ruderal habitats and to climate. Frequency decreases with increasing rainfall combined with decreasing temperatures, | ||
+ | Wall barley is part of a complex of overlapping subspecies whose centre of distribution is in the | ||
+ | Mediterranean region. Subspecies murinum is the native grass in the UK. Sub-species leporinum and glaucum are introduced casuals. | ||
+ | In Australia, biotypes of the latter two sub-species have been reported with resistance to the herbicide paraquat | ||
+ | In New Zealand, wall barley is a particular problem to stock. | ||
+ | The sharply pointed seeds can penetrate the eyes, mouth and skin of sheep causing animal losses and devaluing the pelts. | ||
+ | The level of damage is influenced by the breed of sheep, mainly due to differences in the structure of the coat. | ||
+ | Sheep dogs too are affected when the seeds become embedded between their toes. | ||
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+ | ===== Plantago major(Broad-Leaved Plantain) | ||
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+ | It grows from a very short rhizome, which bears below a great number of long, straight, yellowish roots, and above, a large, radial rosette of leaves and a few Iong, slender, densely-flowered spikes. | ||
+ | The leaves are ovate, blunt, abruptly contracted at the base into a long, broad, channelled footstalk (petiole). | ||
+ | The blade is 4 to 10 inches long and about two-thirds as broad, usually smooth, thickish, five to eleven ribbed, the ribs having a strongly fibrous structure, the margin entire, or coarsely and unevenly toothed. | ||
+ | The flower-spikes, | ||
+ | The flowers are somewhat purplish-green, | ||
+ | The fruit is a two-celled capsule, not enclosed in the perianth, and containing four to sixteen seeds. | ||
+ | The Plantain belongs to the natural order Plantaginaceae, | ||
+ | The drug is without odour: the leaves are saline, bitterish and acrid to the taste; the root is saline and sweetish. | ||
+ | The glucoside Aucubin, first isolated in Aucuba japonica, has been reported as occurring in many species. | ||
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+ | Medicinal Action and Properties | ||
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+ | Refrigerant, | ||
+ | Applied to a bleeding surface, the leaves are of some value in arresting haemorrhage, | ||
+ | The fresh leaves are applied whole or bruised in the form of a poultice. | ||
+ | Rubbed on parts of the body stung by insects, nettles, etc., or as an application to burns and scalds, the leaves will afford relief and will stay the bleeding of minor wounds. | ||
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+ | Fluid extract: dose, 1/2 to 1 drachm. | ||
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+ | In the Highlands the Plantain is still called ' | ||
+ | Pliny goes so far as to state, 'on high authority,' | ||
+ | He also says that it will cure the madness of dogs. | ||
+ | Erasmus, in his Colloquia, tells a story of a toad, who, being bitten by a spider, was straightway freed from any poisonous effects he may have dreaded by the prompt eating of a Plantain leaf. | ||
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+ | Another old Herbal says: 'If a woodhound (mad dog) rend a man, take this wort, rub it fine and lay it on; then will the spot soon be whole. | ||
+ | ' And in the United States the plant is called 'Snake Weed,' from a belief in its efficacy in cases of bites from venomous creatures; | ||
+ | it is related that a dog was one day stung by a rattlesnake and a preparation of the juice of the Plantain and salt was applied as promptly as possible to the wound. | ||
+ | The animal was in great agony, but quickly recovered and shook off all trace of its misadventure. | ||
+ | Dr. Robinson (New Family Herbal) tells us that an Indian received a great reward from the Assembly of South Carolina for his discovery that the Plantain was 'the chief remedy for the cure of the rattlesnake.' | ||
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+ | Our Saxon ancestors esteemed it highly and in the old Lacnunga the Weybroed is mentioned as one of nine sacred herbs. | ||
+ | In this most ancient source of Anglo-Saxon medicine, we find this 'salve for flying venom':' | ||
+ | seek those which will float, and one eggshell full of clean honey, then take clean butter, let him who will help to work up the salve, | ||
+ | melt it thrice: let one sing a mass over the worts, before they are put together and the salve is wrought up. | ||
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* Buddleja Davidii (Butterfly Bush) | * Buddleja Davidii (Butterfly Bush) | ||
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+ | ===== Pissenlit officinal or Taraxacum officinale(Dandelion) | ||
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+ | There is some doubt, however, as to whether it was really the shape of the leaves that provided the original notion, as there is really no similarity between them, but the leaves may perhaps be said to | ||
+ | resemble the angular jaw of a lion fully supplied with teeth. Some authorities have suggested that the yellow flowers might be compared to the golden teeth of the heraldic lion, while others say that the | ||
+ | whiteness of the root is the feature which provides the resemblance. Flückiger and Hanbury in Pharmacographia, | ||
+ | In the Ortus Sanitatis, 1485, under 'Dens Leonis,' | ||
+ | In the pictures of the old herbals, for instance, the one in Brunfels' | ||
+ | The name of the genus, Taraxacum, is derived from the Greek taraxos (disorder), and akos (remedy), on account of the curative action of the plant. A possible alternative derivation of Taraxacum is suggested in The Treasury of Botany:' | ||
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+ | Many little flies also are to be found visiting the Dandelion to drink the lavishly-supplied nectar. By carefully watching, it has been ascertained that no less than ninety-three different kinds of insects are in the habit of frequenting it. | ||
+ | The stigma grows up through the tube formed by the anthers, pushing the pollen before it, and insects smearing themselves with this pollen carry it to the stigmas of other flowers already expanded, thus insuring cross-fertilization. | ||
+ | At the base of each flower-head is a ring of narrow, green bracts the involucre. Some of these stand up to support the florets, others hang down to form a barricade against such small insects as might crawl up the stem and injure | ||
+ | the bloom without taking a share in its fertilization, | ||
+ | ---History--- | ||
+ | The first mention of the Dandelion as a medicine is in the works of the Arabian physicians of the tenth and eleventh centuries, who speak of it as a sort of wild Endive, under the name of Taraxcacon. | ||
+ | In this country, we find allusion to it in the Welsh medicines of the thirteenth century. Dandelion was much valued as a medicine in the times of Gerard and Parkinson, and is still extensively employed. | ||
+ | Dandelion roots have long been largely used on the Continent, and the plant is cultivated largely in India as a remedy for liver complaints. | ||
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===== Crepis tectorum (Narrow-Leaved Hawk' | ===== Crepis tectorum (Narrow-Leaved Hawk' | ||
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Crepis(Crepis tectorum) is a genus of about 200 annual and perennial flowering plants found in the family Asteraceae resembling Dandelion, the main differences being that Hawksbeards have multiple flowers per plant as well as branching stems. | Crepis(Crepis tectorum) is a genus of about 200 annual and perennial flowering plants found in the family Asteraceae resembling Dandelion, the main differences being that Hawksbeards have multiple flowers per plant as well as branching stems. | ||
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--Ecology-- | --Ecology-- | ||
Today, liverworts can be found in many ecosystems across the planet except the sea and excessively dry environments, | Today, liverworts can be found in many ecosystems across the planet except the sea and excessively dry environments, | ||
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http:// | http:// | ||
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+ | ===== Geranium robertianum | ||
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