About a month ago now , my family get going on vacation in Southern Ohio . It was a great chance to get away and disconnect from electronics and our busy lives . We stay at a cabin and our days were fill with fishing , hiking and circuit board game . At the end of our hebdomad off , the friends who lend us their cabin came to gossip and offered my daughter and me an ATV ride through a nearby parkland .
I ’m just pop off to guess right now that my version of sightseeing on the back of an ATV is not the norm . As I hinge upon along , I was incessantly stretch out my neck opening to see what lie in the forest on either side of the road . I was frantic to see some of the familiar industrial plant that I had check all week on our hike , but every once in for a while a fluffy purple blossom would come into view . Going at the in high spirits speeding , I could n’t tell what it was , but I have sex that it was n’t a industrial plant I had met before .
After we had load down up the van to go , I had my husband ride down the same lane we had gone on the ATV . I simply could n’t leave the area without withdraw a nigh look at the mystery flower . When I pay back it home and get poring over my subject field guides , I discovered that I had found knapweed ( Centaurea maculosa ) .
What Is Knapweed?
Going at high speeds , I had suppose that the plant could be in the thistle family . The flower looks very similar to that of ourCanada thistle(Cirsium arvense ) . Once I look at the plant up close , it was clean that these two plant were not tie in . In fact , knapweed is in thesunflower family . The plant is a biennial and bed the upset ground found along ditch and pastures . By now , this special species is sporting its seed heads , but in July and August , it order on quite a roadside show .
Healing With Knapweed
Knapweed is a well - known medicinal with quite a long account . It was cite by herbalist Nicholas Culpeper in the mid seventeenth century as a topical cure for both common and cancerous sores . Both the leave and the ascendant have been used for eye ailments and liver disorder , though it ’s most often discussed in reference to nervous system job .
Native Americans taught the employment of knapweed as a digestive . This would inculpate to me that there is a sulfurous aspect to this plant . I did n’t taste the specimen I brought home , and I ’m not sure why that did n’t occur to me before it had dry out up . In some countries around the world , knapweed species are refer to as an edible , but it seems that the legal age of folks disagree with this . I ’m going to guess that is due to a disagreeable flavor rather than any suggestion of toxicity .
I was so worked up to discover a new plant to get to know as part of my vacation . If you have knapweed near you , perhaps you already know its name . You may not have gracious mentation about it though , as in many expanse , it is considered an invasive . Perhaps you may look at it with new center , as I did , even if you remember you have intercourse this pretty industrial plant . Like the thistle it resembles , there is much to do good our health if we can only look past its undesirable skinny quality .
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