01.
Heal all: A Bit of Botany
a little botanical information on heal all
description
Prunella vulgaris is a perennial plant of the Lamiaceae family and grows 5
to 30 cm high (2-12 inches), with creeping, self-rooting, tough, square,
reddish stems branching at leaf axis. The leaves are lance shaped,
serrated, and reddish at tip, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long and 1.5 cm (half an
inch) broad, and growing in opposite pairs down the square stem. Each leave
has 3-7 veins that shoot off of the middle vein to the margin. The stalks of
the leaves are generally short, but can be up to 5 cm (2 inches) long. The
flowers grow from a club-like, somewhat square, whirled cluster; immediately
below this club is a pair of stalk less leaves standing out on either side
like a collar. Flowers are two lipped and tubular. The top lip is a purple
hood, and the bottom lip is often white; it has three lobes with the middle
lobe being larger and fringed upwardly. Flowers bloom at different times
depending on climate and other conditions, but mostly in summer (from June
to August in the USA).
common names & nomenclature
The botanical names comes from the French prunelle, meaning
"plum-colored" — in reference to the flower color, and from Latin
vulgaris "of or pertaining
to the common people, common".
Also known as:
common self-heal, self heal, all-heal, heal all, heart of the earth, prunella,
brunella, self heal, all heal, woundwort, wound root, slough heal, blue curls,
dragonhead, hercules' woundwort, hook-heal, heart of the earth, carpenter's
herb, dragonhead, xia ku cao