Ledum palustre - Ledum palustre. Sem. Heathers - Ericaceae.
Ledum is a shrub. The bog plant is a typical inhabitant of upland bogs, swampy pine and birch forests, larch marshes, and mossy tundras. The bog bush is also common in the valleys of waterlogged mountain rivers.
The plant's habitat is Holarctic. Bogulnik bush is widespread in the tundra and, forest zones, in the mountain-forest belt of Siberia and the Far East.
Marsh fenugreek has evergreen narrow-lanceolate leaves that look like broad needles. In a damp forest or on the edge of a bog Ledum marsh grows to a height of more than 1 m, and on sphagnum ridges of a high bog the trunks of Ledum marsh rise above the surface only by 20-30 cm.
When one enters a thicket of marsh marsh fenugreek, especially during the flowering season, the smell of the marsh fenugreek plant seems pleasant in the first few moments. But it is worth staying there for a while - and the reaction will not be slow to affect: appear lethargy, drowsiness, heart palpitations.
A fragrant shrub grows on a bump,
♪ The bog is a decoration ♪
Ledum, a forest pharmacy, blooms dimly but lushly in spring.
В. Г. Rubtsov
Unsightly green-brown marsh rosemary during flowering becomes festive, bright. The inflorescences of the Ledum plant appear to be either white fluffy caps or furry balls. Individual florets are small: 1-1.5 centimeters. Above the five oval petals are stamens on long filaments, and in the middle is a pistil with a curved stigma. During flowering, thickets of marsh marsh fen are covered as if with a white haze, and the aroma floats over them like a stupefaction. The marsh fen blooms in May-June, often very abundantly. On the numerous adventitious roots of the plant Ledum, as in all plants of the family. Heathers, no sucking spines. They are replaced by mycorrhiza - fungal hyphae fused with the cells of the roots of marsh marsh mulberry (Fig. 2).
All plants of Ledum, and especially its young twigs and flowers, are rich in essential oils
(up to 7.5 %). There's ldol, palustrol, and other oils, as well as rosemary camphor. In addition to essential oils, tannins, ascorbic acid, glycosides (arbutin and andromedotoxin), coumarins, flavonoids, phenols, and coloring substances are found in the bush of Ledum. The main active ingredient of the Ledum plant is believed to be Ledum cambora or Ledum camphor. Studies in recent years have shown that the leaves of Ledum contain up to 16 chemical elements (calcium, potassium, magnesium, nickel, manganese, iron, vanadium, aluminum, lead, molybdenum, barium, strontium, chromium, titanium, etc.).). Because of its high essential oil content, the entire Ledum plant is poisonous. Pure essential oil of Ledum is thick and greenish, has a bitter taste and pungent odor, has an irritant effect, and in large doses can lead to paralysis of the nervous system. And even honey derived from the Ledum plant is toxic. Consumption of the honey of the Ledum plant causes intoxication resembling alcoholic intoxication (which is probably why Ledum honey is called drunken honey).
For medicinal purposes, the young shoots of the Ledum plant with leaves and flowers are collected. Collection of raw material of Ledum is carried out from the beginning of flowering and until the ripening of the seeds of the plant of Ledum, ie. е. until August-September. The productivity of the dry mass of the bush of Ledum ranges from 60 to 834 kg/ha. The most essential oil of the Ledum plant is in the young twigs. The essential oil of the Ledum plant is very widely used to prepare medicines that are used in the treatment of rhinitis and flu. Infusion of marsh marsh mulberry is recommended in scientific medicine for bronchitis, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis as an expectorant and bactericidal agent. Tests on the essential oils of Ledum marshii have shown that one of the constituents of Ledum marshii, Ledol, is good against coughs, and an infusion of the leaves of the Ledum bush is generally sedative and narcotic
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drug. Hemlock essential oil also lowers blood pressure and slows the heart rate. Used Ledum marsh and spastic enterocolitis.
Ledum bog is also known in folk medicine. Already in the Middle Ages it is mentioned in Danish and German herbalists. Here the range of useful properties of marsh marsh marshmallow is even wider. Thus, it is used to treat bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, colds, kidney and stomach diseases, skin disease, gout, dysentery, used as a diuretic.
Ledum bogwood is an excellent insecticide. Decoction of marsh marsh mulberry is used to exterminate household insects. For example, to protect clothes from moths, it is sprinkled with powder from the leaves of marsh marsh mulberry or lay young twigs.
Ledum has long been known as a source for obtaining dye for wool. Depending on the amount of raw material and the way the dye is prepared, the yarn comes in different shades. There are even a few ancient recipes preserved. Here is one of them: 500 g branches of marsh marsh rosewood are soaked for 24 hours and yarn is boiled in this water for 4 hours, as a result of which it turns yellow with a beige tint. If you add a teaspoon of salt to the decoction, the yarn becomes pink in color. With potassium dichromate the fabric will turn green, with alum - gray with brown tint.
In our country there are several more species of Ledum, which are close to the bog plant in properties. Ledum big-leaved grows in mossy bogs and damp larch forests of the Far East. In the mountains, it rises to a height of 1600 m above sea level. м. Ledum also has expectorant properties, and is used to treat chronic rheumatism, scrofulosis. Ledum essential oil showed high anti-inflammatory effects in the experiment. Stemmed fenugreek is found in the European Arctic, Eastern Siberia and the Far East. The ecological range of Ledum stolonifer is even wider: from bogs and sphagnum bogs to cedar shrub thickets, from dry spruce forests to larch sparse forests, from mountains to floodplains. It is a small plant (only up to 20 cm tall), and its twigs run along the ground. In terms of its medicinal properties, stilted fenugreek is similar to other species of fenugreek. As a medicinal and called and Ledum subwhite, inhabiting the Far East. It is a very ornamental shrub, reaching 1 m in height, with numerous white flowers gathered at the ends of the branches..
