2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
A violent nettle grows near the fence, frightening off lovers of the neighbor's harvest. Sometimes the owner of the site swears, accidentally touching the burning leaves of the plant with his bare hand, and even plans to destroy the stinging thickets. But Nettle is an amazingly useful creation of the plant world, if you know how to be friends with it
Spectacular and burning
Strong bushes of an unpretentious plant are very effective and picturesque. The stem and leaves of most of the fifty species of the genus are covered with very cute-looking hairs, upon contact with which a sensation of a burn remains on the skin. So Nettle protects its presence on the planet, preventing herbivores from destroying appetizing and vitamin leaves. It was this ability of the plant that gave botanists a reason for the Latin name of the genus - "Urtica", which is based on the Latin word "uro", which means, translated into a language we understand, "burn".
The leaves of the plant appear tender and soft. I just want to stroke a sheet plate with a sharp nose, elegantly framed with coquettish teeth. But it was not so: formic acid, organic compounds "choline" and "histamine", concentrated in the tip of the hairs, contained in the juice of the plant, burn the skin sharply, quickly discouraging the desire for communication.
Hardly anyone considers dense inflorescences of small flowers for fear of getting burned. And in vain, although the flowers are miniature, but very funny, in their shape they resemble orchid flowers in a reduced version.
Vitamin and healthy
Today, the media like to dazzle with unexpected statements addressed to long-established opinions about various everyday phenomena and things, including the benefits of long-revered plants. For example, that the use of carrots for maintaining vision is an invention of English pilots, and the high content of "iron" in spinach is just a mistake of the clerk who put the "comma" in the wrong place.
However, to check the chemical composition of plants at home is not a very real matter, and therefore you have to trust the old literature, which says that young shoots and green fresh foliage of Nettle contain not only "burning" components, but also many vitamins and useful chemical elements … For example, in terms of iron content, Nettle is ahead of Spinach, which in the light of the latest "discoveries" no longer sounds like a sensation, but rather raises doubts or a slight grin. And in terms of the content of vitamin "C" Nettle is the leader among such vitamin vegetables as sorrel, cabbage, lettuce and green onions.
Cooking Nettle
Nettle is one of the earliest plants that appear in ravines, along river banks, in unkempt areas of summer cottages, as soon as the snow leaves the surface of the earth. It does not require any financial costs or close tutelage, generously sharing its useful components with a person. Only thirty grams of young fresh nettle leaves contain the daily human need for vitamin "A".
If you have the opportunity to use environmentally friendly Nettle (you should not collect nettles within the boundaries of industrial cities), do not indifferently pass by this unpretentious, but useful plant creation of nature. Nettle can be added to green borscht, spring salads, cold fish soup, and used as a filling for pies.
Healing abilities of Nettle
In Russia, they knew about the healing abilities of nettles for a long time. Women used a decoction of nettle to strengthen their hair. Traditional healers treated Nettle rheumatism, anemia, used as a choleretic, diuretic, hemostatic agent, for healing skin wounds.
Fiber was made from the stalks of the Nettle. Coarse fiber was used to make burlap, ropes, and thinner fiber was used to make fabrics. Clothes made of such fabric possessed all the healing powers of Nettle. Nettle fabrics are still made today in countries such as China, India, the Philippines, South Korea and Brazil. The cost of such fabrics is high, but the products made from it are worth it.
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Bellflower Nettle
Nettle-leaved bell (lat.Campanula trachelium) - a perennial herb of the Bell genus of the Bellflower family of the same name (lat.Campanulaceae). The plant is a natural creature with spectacular leaves decorated with a scalloped edge and relatively large blue-violet bell-shaped flowers.
Stinging Nettle
Stinging nettle is one of the plants of the family called nettle, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Urtica dioica L. As for the name of the family of stinging nettle itself, in Latin it will be as follows: Urticaceae Juss.
Narrow-leaved Nettle
Narrow-leaved nettle is one of the plants of the family called nettle, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Urtica angustifolia Fisch. ex Hormen. As for the name of the narrow-leaved nettle family itself, in Latin it will be like this:
Hemp Nettle
Hemp nettle is one of the plants of the family called nettle, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Urtica cannabina L. As for the Latin name for hemp nettle, in Latin it will be: Urticaceae Juss. Description of hemp nettle Hemp nettle is a single or dioecious perennial herb, the height of which will fluctuate between seventy and one hundred and fifty centimeters.
Nettle As Fertilizer On The Site
Nettle is a magnificent plant, useful in all respects: excellent vitamin cabbage soup is prepared from it, hair is rinsed with infusions based on it, and nettle decoctions are widely used for medicinal purposes. But even this, the already wide scope of application of this plant is not limited - you can make excellent fertilizers from nettle! How can they be useful to vegetation and how to prepare them?
