Aspen biennial - a medicinal and ornamental plant that blooms at night. It received this name for the similarity of the shape of the leaves with the ears of a donkey. However, it also has many other names: rapunzel, field levkoy, lettuce root, night candle, etc.
Oslinnik biennial: description
Oslinnik is a biennial plant with a straight or branched stem up to 1.5 m high, regular leaves (oval or lanceolate), decorated with teeth along the edge.
Its flowers, 3-4 cm in diameter, have a bright yellow-lemon shade and a pleasant fragrant aroma, are located in the axils of the upper leaves, gather in long racemose inflorescences. Flowering continues from June to September, and its flowers bloom in the evening, pollinated by nocturnal insects, and close in the morning.
The fruits have the shape of a 4-sided box, each of which can hold up to 230 small seeds. Fruit ripening is uneven between September and November.
The plant has the botanical name of evening primrose biennial. Oenothera biennis - this is how the two-year-old donkey is written in Latin, which in Greek means: “oinos” (wine) and “tere” (desire). The name is associated with a specific aroma and effect of the salad from its leaves. In ancient times, it was believed that after eating evening primrose, love desires wake up. Her homeland is North America.
Origin and distribution area
Belongs to evening primrose or biennial aspen to the family of Cypress, the genus includes 80 species of plants. In its homeland - the American continent - it is grown in the form of a vegetable called "rapunzel" or "rapontica", using fleshy roots in food. Evening primrose was brought to Europe in the 17th century, gradually the plant grew wild and spread to many countries.
Now in nature, the primrose can be found in Central Europe, the Scandinavian countries, in the north of Russia, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean countries, in China, Japan and Australia. The plant loves calcareous and sandy-humus soils, often grows near the road, along railway embankments, along river banks. The primrose is located either in small groups or singly.
Use in cooking
All parts of evening primrose can be used for cooking:
- raw or boiled parsnip-like roots put in salads;
- young primrose greens can be used for salad or put in green borscht,
- crushed seeds have a nutty flavor and can be added tohoney or jam.
Medicinal properties
Enotera has several popular names: night candle, evening primrose, etc. The plant is rich in useful substances: glucose (36%), sucrose (3.2%), cellulose (10%), starch (5%), inulin (2%), fatty oils (3.5%), and resins, rubber, organic acids and tannins are also present. The leaves contain phenolcarboxylic acids, vitamins C and E, flavonoids. The seeds are rich in fatty oils (up to 50%), have protein (16%), glucose (36%), etc.
Useful properties of biennial primrose are very diverse. For medicinal purposes, flowers, stems, one-year-old roots, and seeds are used. All of them have an astringent, calming effect, increase the secretion of insulin in the body, increase immunity and resistance to diseases, stimulate the functions of the gastrointestinal tract, are useful in diseases of the kidneys, lungs and skin, and have a neutralizing effect on the negative biofield. One of the components - gamma-linolenic acid - has a positive effect on the normalization of physiological processes in the female body, so evening primrose oil is often prescribed in the treatment of infertility, to reduce menstrual pain.
Use of primrose in folk medicine:
- roots - for tuberculosis and colds;
- decoction of inflorescences - with nephritis, for the treatment of wounds;
- an infusion of the leaves has a sedative and anticonvulsant effect;
- tinctures of green parts on water and vodka - for diarrhea, to normalize the condition afterdehydration.
Based on the biennial primrose, the homeopathic preparation "Evening Primrose Oil" is produced with a high content of vitamin E, unsaturated fatty acids. Evening primrose oil is also used to relieve abdominal cramps, hemorrhoids, lower blood pressure, treat bruises and skin diseases (including acne), as it relieves itching, redness and increases skin moisture. Evening primrose oil is added to cosmetics to moisturize and soften facial skin.
Enotera treatment is contraindicated in glaucoma, increased permeability of blood vessels.
Growing in the country
Such an unpretentious plant as biennial donkey can be successfully grown in your summer cottage for decorative and medicinal purposes. Evening primrose loves sunny places, although it can also grow in sparse shade under trees, it is unpretentious to the soil. Does not tolerate excess moisture, tk. this contributes to the decay of the roots, because the ground around the bush must be regularly loosened and weeds removed. Watering may be needed only during very hot and dry periods. The plant tolerates wintering well without shelter.
Enotera is propagated by seeds, often by self-sowing. An easier way is vegetative, which is best applied in autumn or spring in May. The bushes are divided into individual sprouts and transplanted to the right place, usually the plants take root well.
Landscape use
Plants of evening primrose or biennial primrose are very beautifullook when planted in groups in flower beds, mixborders, on terraces, where their beautiful flowering will be perfectly visible and a pleasant aroma will be felt.
Small bushes are planted with a distance of 30 cm, thick and tall - up to 1 m. For tall plants, shortening of side shoots by half the length is used, which will increase the number of buds. In the flower bed, tall varieties are planted at the back, they can be combined with delphinium, bluebells, rudbeckia, undersized - they are perfectly combined on an alpine hill with lobelia, ageratum and other flowers.
Each evening, shortly before sunset (during the summertime), you will be able to watch the spectacle of almost instantaneous opening of bright yellow flowers, which will "burn" like a night candle until dawn, and then "fade out" and fall off.
