2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The "prickly" representative of the Astrovye family, echinacea, will decorate a summer cottage garden or a Moorish lawn, and along the way will relieve physical fatigue, depression, strengthen immunity and help to cope with a number of other diseases
Perennial
Echinacea is another guest from North America (thanks to Eric the Red, the discoverer of North America in the 10th century). The unpretentious plant is found there on rocky hills, limestone wastelands and arid steppes. It was there that echinacea learned endurance, cold resistance. It withstands rain and drought and thrives on poor, rocky soils.
Echinacea can grow in one place for several years. Its bright large flowers with ray petals and a bristly hedgehog-like core will decorate the Moorish lawn from July to September. The name, which translates as "prickly", the plant received for its ruffled core of the flower.
Strong tall stems proudly support purple, white, crimson, peach and yellow flowers that look great when cut, keeping their freshness and charm for a long time.
The roots of the plant, which have a pungent taste, can be used as a spice.
Decorative echinacea
Echinacea purpurea belongs to the decorative types. Since there was a time when it was attributed to the Rudbeckia genus, the old name - "Purple Rudbeckia" has been preserved for it.
Echinacea purpurea flowers are spectacular and large, the diameter of one flower can be up to 12 centimeters. The brown core, like a dome, rises above the pointed petals.
Yellow Echinacea, the only one with this color among other relatives, is named "Echinacea Strange". It differs not only in color, but also in less tolerance to frost. Therefore, for the winter, it must be better wrapped in mulch.
Tireless and inquisitive breeders continue to amaze the world with new varieties of echinacea, breeding varieties with two-tone fragrant flowers, increasing the size of the flower (up to 15 centimeters in diameter), with spotted leaves.
Echinacea is equally good as a single bush and surrounded by other plants of the Moorish lawn. Its neighbors can be yarrow, dahlias, monarda ragged flowers, exotic knifofia (kniphofia), ornamental cereals.
Echinacea cultivation
Echinacea captivates with its unpretentiousness, durability and splendor. It feels great both in partial shade and in the sun, on any soil, but it is preferable that the soil is slightly alkaline and moisture-permeable.
Propagated by seeds, self-sowing. Densely overgrown areas can be thinned out by dividing the bushes in late autumn or early spring. In the fall, the bushes are cut to the ground and covered with mulch.
The resistance of the plant helps to successfully fight pests, so diseases bypass the side of echinacea.
Beneficial features
The uniqueness of echinacea lies in the rich set of biologically active substances in all parts of the plant:
* Flavonoids or the so-called "vitamin P", which helps to strengthen the walls of the blood vessels of the circulatory system.
* Polysaccharides are high-molecular carbohydrates that are a source of energy for the human body. Immune processes cannot do without them.
* Trace elements - potassium, calcium, lithium, cobalt, selenium and others, working to strengthen the immune system.
* Alkylamides are biologically active substances that promote the renewal and restoration of damaged tissues. For example, the outer layer of human skin is constantly renewed with their help.
* Vitamins are catalysts for metabolic processes in the body.
And many other useful components.
Echinacea - a panacea for all diseases
Pharmacists are very actively using echinacea, preparing tablets, capsules, tinctures, herbs from it. It seems that echinacea is just a panacea for all diseases, including cancer and AIDS.
However, it also has contraindications. You should not use medicines from the plant for pregnant and lactating women, as well as people suffering from a number of diseases, including tuberculosis, leukemia, rheumatism, acute angina …
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