2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
In reality, fire and water are antipodes. Where one appears, the other has no place. But since ancient times, people have tried to combine these two life forces. An example of the magical union of water and fire is an annual plant called Ivan da Marya. Many different legends are associated with it. Ivan da Marya is one of the four plants from which girls wove wreaths on the night of Ivan Kupala
Legends of loyalty
Numerous legends, differing from each other in some details, agree on one thing, singing the fidelity of loving hearts.
More often than not, legends are based on a love story between blood brother and sister. Sometimes these are twins separated in childhood, who met in adolescence. Not knowing about their relationship, they fall in love with each other. Such love has been persecuted in all ages. Therefore, when the secret became apparent, the lovers had no choice but to turn to the gods with a request to turn them into a flower, in which the lovers could unite forever without disturbing public morality.
This is how the Ivan da Marya plant appeared, in which two contrasting colors harmoniously combined: yellow and purple. People turned it into a symbol of loyalty to all loving hearts.
The magical union of fire and water
The plant was not only a symbol of loyalty, but also a symbol of the magical union of water and fire, combining the violet-blue color of water and the yellow color of the flame of fire.
On the night of Ivan Kupala, when the dew was still glistening on the leaves and flowers, people collected various herbs, which, as it was believed, at that time had the most healing properties and magical powers. These were: fern, wormwood, nettle and Ivan da Marya.
The girls weaved wreaths of herbs and threw them into the river stream, hoping to find their betrothed with the help of the wreath. Herbs were dried and used for medicinal purposes, to protect against evil spirits. After steaming in the bath with a broom from Ivan da Marya, a person cleansed himself of any filth that adhered to him.
Description of the plant
Legends are legends, but Ivan da Marya has adapted well to life on Earth. An annual plant has the properties of a vampire. Its underdeveloped root system is equipped with suction cups that stick to other plants and pump their juices for their nutrition.
Lanceolate opposite leaves sit firmly on an erect stem 10 to 50 centimeters high. The top of the stem is decorated with a racemose inflorescence that combines violet-blue bracts and bright yellow corollas of flowers. Bloom lasts from June to September. Ants like to feast on juicy appendages of large seeds (up to 6 mm long), at the same time being a "vehicle" for the spread of the plant.
Ivan da Marya can be found in thickets of bushes, in deciduous light forests, at the edges of the forest. Grows in both lighted and shaded areas. The plant loves dry soils, rich in mineral salts.
Multiple names
The plant Ivan da Marya has a huge number of popular names. Therefore, looking at the photo, everyone recognizes in it their own name, familiar to their native places. It can be: yellowhead, mare grass, lucrose, scrofulous grass, kushaka, Adam and Eve, magpie shavings, meadow bell, jaundice, fireflower, brother, copperhead, medunka, well-aimed grass, ivanova grass, yellowberry, brother-with-sister, mariannik.
In some places, the name "Ivan da Marya" is called a tricolor violet, which we also call "Pansies".
Medicinal use
No wonder the plant was endowed with magical qualities. Fruits and herbs are actively used by traditional healers for wound healing, for the treatment of skin diseases (including skin tuberculosis), for diseases of the heart and stomach, and epilepsy.
The seeds of the plant are poisonous. A decoction of them is used to combat harmful insects.
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