Common Larkweed
Common greasewort is quite often found on the ridges of aapa bogs, but it also feels good among stones on wet ground. In appearance, greasewood does not resemble either dewlap or vesicles. The bright green small glossy leaves of the common greasewood are gathered in a root rosette. The flowers of the common honeysuckle are small, bright blue-purple, very beautiful. The flower has a two-lipped pharynx studded with velvety hairs and a sharp spurge. The catching apparatus of the common greasewood is a leaf, the edges of which are slightly bent outward, and on the lamina there are very many small, almost imperceptible glands that secrete a sticky juice. The insects crawl onto the leaf of the common greasewood and stick to it. And then everything happens like in dewberry: the edges of the leaf bend, gradually curl - and the insect is inside a narrow gap, glands secrete acidic enzymes, similar in composition to the stomach juice of animals, and after about a day digest the victim.
Medium vesicle has found a shelter in lowland marshes, in the water of cesspools and lakes. This plant resembles a sprig of larch thrown into water, but more delicate. It is only during flowering that the arrow with beautiful bright yellow flowers rises above the water surface (Fig. 21). Trapper
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The mechanism of the vesicle is quite peculiar: next to the thin lobes of the thread-like green leaves are whitish bubbles, which spear live prey.
Aldrovanda vesicularis is widespread in warmed lakes and pools in southern Russia, the Caucasus, the Far East and Central Asia. Its floating filamentous stems are strung with leaves that sit in whorls and are furnished with many hairs. The two semi-circular leaves fold up to form an insect trap. During flowering, white solitary florets appear above the surface of the water, pollinated by insects.
Marsh cinquefoil - Comarum palustre.
Family Rosaceae.
And whether you're a hunter or a prospector.
But cinquefoil will take away all your pains.
Ю. Linnik
Often cinquefoil is referred to as a tierra herb. And for good reason. Dark-purple petals of cinquefoil flowers, arranged in a row on the same color sepals, look like a small fire on the background of large carved leaves. Dark green and naked from above, the leaves of swamp cinquefoil are densely pubescent on the inside. And they seem to be covered in a delicate gray felt. The leaves of marsh cinquefoil sway in the wind, alternately showing the upper green and lower silvery side. The stem of swamp cinquefoil is recumbent, curved like a saber. Maybe that's where its generic name, cinquefoil, came from. There is another version: swamp cinquefoil, like a saber, destroys what is harmful to the body. Rhizomes of swamp cinquefoil are long, woody, often extending in loose, poorly decomposed peat for 2-3 m and more.
In a marshy meadow by the water
There's a bluestem herb,
Its flowers are unusual
Their coloring is nature's secret.
В. Г. Rubtsov
Swamp cinquefoil is a perennial herbaceous and very common plant. It can be found in transitional grass-sphagnum and lowland grass bogs, along the banks of rivers and lakes, in wet sphagnum meadows, in waterlogged forests, and even in quiet pools and rafts. Thanks to its long rhizomes, swamp cinquefoil is involved in the overgrowth of shallow water bodies. At the front edge of the rafting marsh cinquefoil forms dense and dense thickets, from which rhizomes extend towards the water, to the side, relatively free from competitors. And there, farther and farther away from the shore, new daughter plants are forming. Swamp cinquefoil with its tightly intertwined and very strong rhizomes quite quickly compacts the splavina, and then the place is ready for the settlement of other plants. If the marsh cinquefoil appears on the raft, it is safe to walk on it, despite the fact that it hangs above the water and swaying as if on soft springs.
The habitat of swamp cinquefoil is unusually wide. It grows in the tundra and taiga, spreading throughout the European and Asian parts of the USSR. It can be found even in the mountains of the Caucasus.
Medicinal raw material for swamp cinquefoil is the entire plant: leaves, stems, rhizomes. Collect swamp cinquefoil throughout the summer, but still rhizomes are better to procure in the fall, when they collected all the "pharmacy". Swamp cinquefoil has long been honored by the people for its healing power. But then he was forgotten about for a long time. Only recently has his fame in folk medicine been restored again, and he is once again giving generously of himself to the people. Scientists have found in cinquefoil bog organic acids, tannins, flavonglycosides, catechins, vitamin C, carotene, fatty oils, resins, carbohydrates (sucrose, glucose). Vitamin C in the leaves of cinquefoil is more than in other parts of the plant: up to 0.170 %, and carotene - 0.018 %. Studies of resource scientists from Karelia have shown that the leaves of cinquefoil contain various chemical elements: calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, molybdenum, vanadium, nickel, chromium, lead, manganese, titanium, iron, aluminum.
Since time immemorial, the Laplanders - inhabitants of the Far North - have been making tea from the leaves of the swamp cinquefoil and appreciate its life-giving power. And indeed, decoction of leaves and rhizomes has astringent, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic and styptic action. Swamp cinquefoil helps with rheumatism, some gastrointestinal and colds, as an antipyretic. And alcohol extracts of roots and rhizomes of cinquefoil swamp cinquefoil help relieve painful conditions in inflammatory processes in the joints and the deposition of salts. Its action is slow, so long term treatment is required. Many people note that relief comes, although not immediately. But whether it dissolves salts in the body is unknown. Fresh herb of cinquefoil is used externally; in this case, it acts as a wound-healing and anti-inflammatory agent. Decoction, made from a mixture of flowers, leaves, stems and rhizomes cinquefoil, used for mouthwash for loosening gums and toothache, and crushed and brewed herb cinquefoil - as a compress for bruises, rheumatism, sciatica. Collection prepared from swamp cinquefoil with other herbs, used to treat dysentery and diseases associated with metabolic disorders.
Swamp cinquefoil is also known as a fodder plant: wild animals (reindeer, beavers, moose) eat it quite well. It is also used as a tanning agent: the presence in the rhizomes of a significant amount of tannins (up to 12%) determines its use for leather tanning. Swamp cinquefoil can be used to produce a dye that dyes wool, linen, and cotton with sandy brown colors..
