Woundwort, 9th of July 2017.

I found woundwort (above and the detail below) in a forested part by the seashore, between Malinska and Njivice (Krk island) in a space cleared up from the shrubs, mostly in shadow, in deep grass, about 15 m from the coastline, on a stem about 40 cm long which bowed to eart under the weight of the flower. It is a gentle plant with small pale yellow, almost white flowers with tiny violet dots. Thanks to my learned facebook friends, "my" woundwort was identified as Stachys subcrenata Vis. (where "Vis." denotes Roberto Visiani from Šibenik, but I will say more about him on some other occasion) and I don't know whether it has medicinal use. Its cousin Stachys officinalis known as common hedgenettle, betony, purple betony, wood betony, bishopwort, or bishop's wort (Wikipedia) is a stronger plant with a more compact distribution of purple flowers of similar shape. The leaves and the root of betony are used to regulate digestion and stop diarrhea. Some say that it also helps to relieve nerves, in cases of asthma and other pulmonary diseases. In early medieval Britain, it was used to cure almost everything, that's where one of its names, heall-al, comes from.

Stachys was painted on 17th of June this year. >> Click on the image if you don't see it well and completely.

There seems to be a huge number of Stachys species which differ in size, leaves, color and compactness of flowers ... The images below show two similar Stachys species, Stachys recta and Stachys annua. These are illustrations from the book Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen (1796) authored by father and son Sturm. Jacob Sturm (1771 – 1848), the leading botanical and entomological illustrator in German publications from the end of 18th and beginning of 19th century, learned the engraving skill from his father, also a well-known engraver Johann Georg Sturm (1742 - 1793).

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Last updated on 9th of July 2017.