Content:
Immortelle - a widespread medicinal plant, the so-called "liver" drug, dried flowers. It belongs to perennial plants of the Astrov family, grows everywhere, undemanding to soil and moisture supply. Below is a more detailed description of the grass, it is described how to grow it on your site, properly prepare and use it.
Description
The most common variety is sandy immortelle, or tsmin. Stems are erect, low-leafed, with dried leaves at the base, from 18 to 30-40 cm in height, rarely reaching 60 cm. All parts of the plant have dense pubescence, which is why they acquire a slightly silvery color. The rhizomes are shallow, branching slightly, the maximum root diameter is 12-15 mm, mainly from 1 to 5-7 cm.
Immortelle
Leaves are oblong, lanceolate or elliptical, the edges are curved downward. The flowers are small, collected in baskets, looking like balls of bright yellow, sometimes orange, with a diameter of 4 to 6 mm. They, in turn, are collected in scutes or corymbose panicles of 6-12 pieces or more. Flowers individually in baskets and shields never fade, even if they have long been cut from the mother plant, which is why this flower is called immortelle.
The plant is very common in Europe, Central Asia, Western Siberia and the Caucasus. It prefers dry hills, slopes, sandy steppe areas, open spaces, and can grow in pine forests.
Reproduction
The immortelle easily reproduces vegetatively. To do this, you need to divide the mother plant into 3-4 parts in early spring or autumn. When planting, the rhizomes are not buried, 4-5 parts of sand are added to the pits per 1 part of the garden soil, fertilized with ash, well-rotted manure, moderately watered. The planted bushes are mulched with pine needles.
The immortelle reproduces vegetatively
Another way to get hold of cmin on your plot is to sow seeds in early spring. They are formed in inflorescences-baskets, small, oblong, brown in color, up to 1.5 mm long. If you look closely, you can see a tuft of hairs and small glands on the seeds.
Seeds are sown in pre-prepared containers or beds with moist soil, without covering them up, covered with foil until shoots appear. When sprouts appear, provide maximum illumination. With a stem height of 5-6 cm, they are seated in a permanent place according to the 25 × 30 cm scheme.
Beneficial features
Immortelle is a medicinal herb, contains flavonoids, flavonoid glycosides, hormone-like substances, high-molecular alcohols, resins, phthalides, inositol, dyes and tannins, vitamins and trace elements, fatty acids, essential oil. The herb is rich in selenium. The volume of extracted substances reaches 30%.
Healing properties of immortelle
What does the immortelle herb help from? Sandy Tsmin is an officially recognized healer of liver and gallbladder diseases. The herb infusion helps to improve bile secretion, increases the digestive properties of bile, and prevents stone formation in the gallbladder. The immortelle relieves spasms in the intestines, biliary tract and blood vessels, relieves stomach pains, nausea and vomiting.
The choleretic preparations Flamin and Ziflan, as well as the natural antibiotic arenarin, which successfully fights against bacterial diseases of agricultural crops, are made from raw materials. In everyday life, the herb is used to protect woolen clothing from moths.
How to protect plants from disease
The immortelle bushes do not tolerate flooding and stagnant water. For planting, you need to choose places with good flow and drainage layer in the soil profile. In damp, cloudy weather, plants can develop tissue necrosis and black rot. To combat these diseases, it is necessary to use the drugs Alirin B and Trichodermin.
The immortelle hates flooding and stagnant water
Harvesting grass
Cutting flowers should be done at a time when only the central balls have blossomed, and the side ones are still in their infancy. Otherwise, the raw materials cannot be prepared, the central flowers will fall off, scattering into small parts. The flowering period of one shield is 10-15 days. On one plant, 3-4 harvests can be carried out at intervals of 1 week. Shields need to be cut with a part of the shoot 1-1.5 cm.
When harvesting grass on forest edges, you only need to collect yellow or orange flowers. If it comes across white or pink, it is a similar plant called a cat's paw that should not be harvested and consumed as a medicinal plant.
The flowers are dried under a canopy or on a well-ventilated veranda or balcony. The collected material is scattered in one layer on paper, oilcloth, wooden flooring without access to direct sunlight, since the herb loses its healing properties under the influence of sunlight.
Flowers must be dried for storage
The ready-made herbal collection has a bright color and aroma, similar to the smell of bitter wormwood. The shelf life of harvested raw materials does not exceed 3 years. You can view recipes for making infusions in specialized literature and on the Internet.
Why doesn't interest in medicinal plants in general and immortelle in particular wane? This herb is recognized as medicine and has been serving people for a long time, it can help with many ailments, in particular, prevent the formation of stones in the gallbladder, which is important for a large part of the population, saves money on expensive drugs, acts on the body gently and gently. It is not difficult to grow an immortelle on your site. It is necessary to create an outflow of excess moisture and fill the planting pit with a lot of sand. Collect the grass at the right time and be sure to put a bouquet of dried flowers in the room. The immortelle as a flower of the Sun will delight you all winter!
