Clefthoof

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Hoof (lat. Asarum) - decorative leafy perennial, which is a representative of the Kirkazonov family. And such an interesting name of this plant is due to the fact that its leaves are very similar in shape to horse hooves.

Description

Clefthoof is an evergreen herbaceous ground cover perennial equipped with creeping filamentous branching rhizomes and rooting creeping branched stems. The height of this plant rarely exceeds thirty centimeters.

The heart-shaped or kidney-shaped leaves of the clefthoof sit on rather long petioles, and the axillary single flowers of this plant are usually rather inconspicuous, but they all boast the correct shape. Clefthoof bloom usually occurs in April - May, and the ripening of its seeds starts already with the onset of June.

The clefthoof is characterized by a very specific and rather pungent smell. In total, this genus has fourteen independent species.

Where grows

Clefthoof grows in temperate forests of North America, Asia and Europe, in addition, sometimes it can also be found in Western Siberian forests.

Usage

The European hoof is the most popular among gardeners - it is quite safely used as a ground cover plant both for shady areas of rockeries and for shaded corners of the garden. The low growth rate of rhizomes allows this plant to form surprisingly dense clumps (often on a single square meter of area you can count up to a thousand leaves!), The height of which varies from fifteen to twenty centimeters.

Perhaps the only drawback of this plant cover is that such a cover never grows in the same place for more than five years. But all varieties of clefthoof are extremely hardy, and most of them do not even shed their leaves for the winter - as a rule, they fall off themselves only after particularly severe frosts.

In spring, the clefthoof looks very cool in combination with groves and snowdrops, and at all times it is ideally combined with a medicinal bath, a wide variety of ferns and a number of other shade-loving plants.

The preparations prepared on the basis of the leaves and rhizomes of the clefthoof are quite successfully used in veterinary medicine and folk medicine: in the latter case, this plant will serve well for gastritis, dropsy, jaundice, all kinds of skin ailments (especially with eczema of nervous origin), as well as various diseases of the bile bladder and liver. Nevertheless, a number of studies show that the systematic use of clefthoof and preparations based on it significantly increases the risk of kidney or liver cancer. This is due to the presence of aristolochic acid in the composition of plants - this acid is considered a very strong carcinogen, which is characterized by a delayed period of action (up to ten years).

Growing and caring

All varieties of clefthoof can boast of very impressive cold resistance and shade-tolerance, and sometimes shade-loving. It is best to plant this plant on fertile loose soils, and the hoof is usually moderately picky about moisture. As for transplanting to other places, it is usually carried out every four to five years.

The clefthoof is propagated either towards the end of summer by pieces of rhizomes, or by self-seeding. By the way, it is extremely difficult to collect the seeds of this plant - they are very quickly taken away by ants (and often the seeds are spread by them)! If it was still possible to collect them, then they need to be sown before winter, and then in the spring the first young seedlings will appear. As a rule, no more than three plants are planted per square meter.