A huge number of different plants grow on our planet, and it is very difficult to understand this diversity. But some of these plants are able to bring a special benefit to a person: to prevent the development of certain diseases and even cure them. Just such a famous flower is the coltsfoot, which is found in almost all corners of our country. This perennial culture has long been used by man for medicinal purposes. Let's talk on www.site about such a plant as coltsfoot, give a description for children, tell legends about such a culture and remember together why it was called that.
About what the mother and stepmother looks like, a description of the plant
The coltsfoot is actually quite easy to recognize. This plant is one of the first to please us with attractive and bright colors. Often, even during frosts, on the thawed patches, the coltsfoot already shows her golden twigs, wrapped in warm hairs. After the sun warms up, the plant gradually blooms flowers. They scatter near roads, along the banks of rivers and streams, as well as on cliffs and meadows. If frost and cold are expected, the flowers immediately hide inside a fluffy collar, which can save the most delicate petals from the cold. Thanks to this property, people predict the weather by coltsfoot.
It is surprising that the flowers of such a plant appear long before the leaves. Only after the petals scatter "parachutes" with the wind, the coltsfoot is covered with leaves. Thanks to this feature, this plant received its English title, which literally translates as "son before father."
The main feature of the coltsfoot is the unique structure of its leaves. Their lower part is covered with very delicate hairs, and the surface of the leaf is more rigid and cold to the touch.
But where does it come from, why mother and stepmother, why was the plant called that?
Why is mother and stepmother called so?
It is thanks to the structure of its leaves that coltsfoot got its name. After all, delicate hairs are like the touch of a mother, and the hard surface is comparable to the hands of a stepmother. In the people, the plant is also called unilateral and double leaf. Thanks to medicinal properties coltsfoot also bears the name "king-grass" or "king-potion".
Legends associated with coltsfoot
IN folklore there are several legends about coltsfoot. The first of them tells about an evil woman who really wanted to get rid of her husband's daughter from her first marriage. She did not want her husband to meet the girl and ex-wife. The stepmother lured the girl to a large cliff and pushed her down. The native mother discovered the loss of her daughter and rushed in search of her. But she did not have time, and ran when the girl had already died. In grief and rage, the woman clung to her stepmother, they fell off a cliff into a ravine together and crashed. And the next day, the bottom of the ravine was covered with an amazing plant with leaves that were soft on one side and hard on the other. Above the plant rose beautiful small flowers of a pleasant yellow color, which resembled the color of a little girl's hair.
Another legend about the mother and stepmother plant speaks of a happy family in which the mother suddenly died. The children stopped playing and singing, and the father stooped. Soon a young widow neighbor came into the trust of a widower and became his new wife. But life never returned to the house, because the stepmother is not a mother, her voice blows cold, and her touches are evil and prickly. As soon as the sun warmed up in the spring, the youngest daughter began to run with her longing to the river and shed tears for her dead mother. One day, weeping, she raised her head: and near her feet yellow glasses blossomed. And on the same day, the stepmother disappeared without a trace, and ringing laughter returned to the house again. And the flower began to appear every spring to check whether the children are well, and disappear again. And in summer, leaves appear in its place: with a cold top and warm soft inside.
Additional Information
The coltsfoot is one of the first honey plants. Honey from it turns out very tasty, fragrant and sugary. It can provide tremendous health benefits.
And the leaves of the coltsfoot have long been used by our ancestors to treat a variety of diseases. Most often they are used to combat coughs, as well as to eliminate heart ailments, shortness of breath, kidney diseases and many inflammatory processes.
mother and stepmother is amazing plant, which is found in many parts of our country and can be of great benefit to a person.
The legend associated with the appearance of coltsfoot flowers.
One evil woman plotted to kill her husband's daughter because she didn't want him to go meet her and his ex-wife. She lured her to a cliff and pushed her off. In the meantime, the mother, having discovered the loss of the girl, rushed to look for her, but she was too late: the girl was no longer breathing. The mother rushed to her stepmother and, grappling, they flew to the bottom of the ravine. And the next day his plant covered the slopes, the leaves of which were soft on one side and hard on the other, and small yellow flowers towered above them, resembling the blond hair of a girl.
Coltsfoot - amazing flower, everyone has heard of him, but not everyone was lucky enough to see him in all stages of growth. These are biological features of this plant. You can’t admire all the organs of this herb overnight: you look at a flower when there are no leaves yet, they appear and develop to late autumn, and the achenes are dispersed by the wind after maturation.
Lovers and connoisseurs of nature will be pleased to know that the coltsfoot is the first to decorate the thawed earth, bringing round dances of golden heads to the first spring lawns. This modest, surprisingly resilient plant is one of the first heralds of the awakening spring and renewing nature.
Where yesterday there was snow and only thawed patches were outlined, today it has already melted, the hillocks swollen with moisture, cliffs and slopes of canvases, swollen with moisture, have warmed up. railways. Elastic juicy pedicels with brown scales and woolly pubescence appear from under the ground. You won’t immediately notice them among last year’s withered grass, until yellow-golden heads of inflorescences open on the tops of the stems.
The coltsfoot flowers in April-May. By the duration of flowering (38 days), it has no equal among spring primroses. Inflorescences - single bright yellow baskets. On warm, serene days in the morning, when the sun warms, flower baskets stretch out on their pedicels, straighten up, turning towards the sun, and bask in its rays until 17 o'clock. Smart flowers close and droop along with the stems, they seem to fall asleep. So the plant solves three problems:
protects itself from possible night frosts;
keeps pollen from getting wet;
when the flower opens, pollen falls on the stigma, cross-pollination occurs, so the plant is insured.
During this period, there are still few insects in nature, and a witty device guarantees pollination, after which the inflorescence falls asleep forever and wakes up with a fluffy dandelion.
Coltsfoot flowers are good weather forecasters, as the onset of cold weather and rainy weather they determine in advance with an accuracy no worse than a barometer.
Flowering stems up to 25 cm high, erect, unbranched, pubescent, covered with oblong, pinkish-lilac, brownish-red sharp scaly leaves above. By the middle of summer, the leaves will become coarse and form continuous dense carpets along the bottom of ravines and clay slopes, sandy spits of rivers. They stand until late autumn, but they are very battered by the winds and therefore thinned, with rusty spots. They fulfilled their purpose, accumulated nutrient reserves in perennial rhizomes.
Due to the fact that the leaves develop after the flowering of the plant, they are simply not noticed and not looked at. The eye is attracted by the flowers of other plants that had appeared by that time.
The coltsfoot bears fruit in May - June. Seeds are collected in beautiful ball like a dandelion, but several times larger. Someone will be lucky to see such fluffy balls in calm weather, and he wonders why he has never seen such huge dandelions before.
Coltsfoot flowers are happy not only for people, but also for honey bees. This first-born of spring flora, one of the earliest honey plants, is of great importance, since with the influx of nectar and pollen, the strength of bee colonies noticeably increases.
Coltsfoot flowers are well propagated both by seeds and vegetatively. In the fields, it is a difficult weed to eradicate, since achenes form a lot, and it takes only a few hours for the seed to germinate after it enters the soil.
In addition, coltsfoot, as a perennial, reproduces well vegetatively. This explains such a wide area of distribution of coltsfoot. It grows in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America where the Europeans brought it. In Russia, it can be found throughout the European part, in Siberia, the Ussuri Territory, in the Caucasus.
Coltsfoot loves moist soil, chooses elevated places, grows on clay soils along the banks of rivers, streams, along ravines, along roadsides, slopes, fields, the first inhabits bare empty spaces.
The mother-and-stepmother plant has the old Russian folk name Kamchuzhnaya grass, which has taken root in connection with the use of its leaves and inflorescences by folk medicine for the treatment of Kamchuga, the ancient name for gout.
For all my long history do not count the popular names of recumbent grass. The name "mother and stepmother" is truly Russian. It is given due to the fact that the lower surface of the leaf is pubescent with numerous fine hairs and, when touched, causes a feeling of warmth. This side warms like a kind and affectionate mother, and on top the leaves are smooth, green and cold, like a stepmother.
Popular names are less known: butterbur, two-faced, icy burdock, mother grass, one-sided, tumor leaves. And one more thing: river grass, water burdock, rannik, podbel, white fluff, horse hoof, king-potion, forest lapushka, mother grass - this is an incomplete list of them.
Kamchuzhnaya herb is one of the oldest and most important medicinal products that were known back in Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome. ethnoscience Many countries use the leaves and flowers of Kamchuzh grass for the treatment of various diseases.
A huge number of different plants grow on our planet, and it is very difficult to understand this diversity. But some of these plants are able to bring a special benefit to a person: to prevent the development of certain diseases and even cure them. Just such a famous flower is the coltsfoot, which is found in almost all corners of our country. This perennial culture has long been used by man for medicinal purposes. Let's talk on - / site / about such a plant as coltsfoot, give a description for children, tell legends about such a culture and remember together why it was called that.
About what the mother and stepmother looks like, a description of the plant
The coltsfoot is actually quite easy to recognize. This plant is one of the first to please us with attractive and bright colors. Often, even during frosts, on the thawed patches, the coltsfoot already shows her golden twigs, wrapped in warm hairs. After the sun warms up, the plant gradually blooms flowers. They scatter near roads, along the banks of rivers and streams, as well as on cliffs and meadows. If frost and cold are expected, the flowers immediately hide inside a fluffy collar, which can save the most delicate petals from the cold. Thanks to this property, people predict the weather by coltsfoot.
It is surprising that the flowers of such a plant appear long before the leaves. Only after the petals scatter "parachutes" with the wind, the coltsfoot is covered with foliage. Thanks to this feature, this plant got its English name, which literally translates as "son before father."
The main feature of the coltsfoot is the unique structure of its leaves. Their lower part is covered with very delicate hairs, and the surface of the leaf is more rigid and cold to the touch.
But where does it come from, why mother and stepmother, why was the plant called that?
Why is mother and stepmother called so?
It is thanks to the structure of its leaves that coltsfoot got its name. After all, delicate hairs are like the touch of a mother, and the hard surface is comparable to the hands of a stepmother. In the people, the plant is also called unilateral and double leaf. Due to the medicinal properties, coltsfoot also bears the name "king of grass" or "king of potion".
Legends associated with coltsfoot
There are several legends about coltsfoot in folklore. The first of them tells about an evil woman who really wanted to get rid of her husband's daughter from her first marriage. She did not want her husband to meet with the girl and with his ex-wife. The stepmother lured the girl to a large cliff and pushed her down. The native mother discovered the loss of her daughter and rushed in search of her. But she did not have time, and ran when the girl had already died. In grief and rage, the woman clung to her stepmother, they fell off a cliff into a ravine together and crashed. And the next day, the bottom of the ravine was covered with an amazing plant with leaves that were soft on one side and hard on the other. Above the plant rose beautiful small flowers of a pleasant yellow color, which resembled the color of a little girl's hair.
Another legend about the mother and stepmother plant speaks of a happy family in which the mother suddenly died. The children stopped playing and singing, and the father stooped. Soon a young widow neighbor came into the trust of a widower and became his new wife. But life never returned to the house, because the stepmother is not a mother, her voice blows cold, and her touches are evil and prickly. As soon as the sun warmed up in the spring, the youngest daughter began to run with her longing to the river and shed tears for her dead mother. One day, weeping, she raised her head: and near her feet yellow flower blossomed. And on the same day, the stepmother disappeared without a trace, and ringing laughter returned to the house again. And the flower began to appear every spring to check whether the children are well, and disappear again. And in summer, leaves appear in its place: with a cold top and a warm, soft inner side.
Additional Information
The coltsfoot is one of the first honey plants. Honey from it turns out very tasty, fragrant and sugary. It can provide tremendous health benefits.
And the leaves of the coltsfoot have long been used by our ancestors to treat a variety of diseases. Most often they are used to combat coughs, as well as to eliminate heart ailments, shortness of breath, kidney diseases and many inflammatory processes.
Coltsfoot is an amazing plant that is found in many parts of our country and can bring great benefits to a person.
The name of the flower Mother and Stepmother is probably known to all residents of the CIS countries. However, not everyone knows how it looks, and why the plant is called "Cat-and-stepmother". But the explanation of the name, as is often the case, is extremely simple. And more on that below.
The scientific name of the flower is "coltsfoot"
It's obvious that given flower distributed not only in the territory of countries former Union and in many other parts of our planet. So, for example, in Africa and Asia, this flower is also very easy to meet. As for him scientific name, then on Latin it sounds like "Tussiliago". After the translation of the name into Russian, it becomes clear for what purpose the plant can be used in medicine, because its name can be voiced as "Kashlegon". This is exactly what happens, pharmacologists widely use this plant for the production of drugs for the treatment and suppression of cough.
The legend of why coltsfoot is called that
There are many old Russian legends about the name of the plant. However, most of them boil down to roughly the same scenario: a long time ago, a man left his family for another woman, leaving his daughter with her mother themselves. However, he systematically visited his own daughter, which haunted his new wife. As a result, jealousy led new wife, who is a stepmother, to the fact that she grabbed a young blonde daughter by the hair, took her to a cliff and threw her down into a cold mountain river.
Upon learning of what had happened, the girl's mother decided to take revenge: she brought her stepmother to the same cliff and wanted to throw her off it, but the unthinkable happened in the fight - both women fell off the cliff. Over time, a flower grew on the site of the death of a young girl, her mother and stepmother. It had a yellow color, symbolizing the color of the girl's hair, as well as soft, delicate leaves on one side, and hard, rough on the other. This symbolized maternal love and the indifference of the stepmother.
Why is the coltsfoot flower so called
If we talk about why the plant was really named that way, then the truth is not far from the legend. Having omitted all the bloody details of the family squabble, one can note the fact that the leaves of the plant are actually with the front and wrong side have different coatings: cold, hard and warm, soft. And here a parallel is involuntarily drawn between the true love of a real mother for her child, and the attitude of a stepmother.
