Coltsfoot. Coltsfoot - hello to the spring sun! Mother and Stepmother where does this name come from?

Why is the flower MOTHER and STEPMOTHER called that?

Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant with a creeping branched fleshy rhizome, from which one or several flowering stems 10-25 cm in height develop in the spring. The flowering stems are erect, initially low, lengthening as they flower, cobwebby-pubescent, seated with ovate-oblong, sharp, often reddish-brown scaly leaves. Real green leaves develop as the plant blooms; they are on long petioles covered with silky felt, dense, unevenly notched-toothed at the edges; their upper side is green, cold (“stepmother”), the lower side is white-felt with abundant pubescence, soft and warm (“mother”). The fruits are linear-oblong achenes with a tuft of long white silky hairs.

Blooms in April - early May, earlier than all others herbaceous plants.

Grows on moist clay and loamy soils - along ditches, banks of rivers and streams, on clay slopes, garbage places, in populated areas near houses, usually in small thickets. Distributed in the European part, in the Caucasus, in Siberia to Lake Baikal, in the cities of Central Asia.

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Coltsfoot contains mucous substances, bitter glycoside tussilagin, tannins and other substances. In medical practice, the leaves of the plant are used for bronchitis, laryngitis, bronchiectasis as an expectorant and anti-inflammatory agent, as well as for gastrointestinal diseases as an astringent.
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The legend associated with the appearance of coltsfoot flowers.

One evil woman planned to destroy 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 it. Meanwhile, the mother, having discovered that the girl was missing, rushed to look for her, but was too late: the girl was no longer breathing. The mother rushed at the stepmother and, grappling, they flew to the bottom of the ravine. And the next day a plant covered the slopes, the leaves of which were soft on one side and hard on the other, and small ones rose above them. yellow flowers, reminiscent of the girl's blond hair.

Coltsfoot is an amazing flower, everyone has heard about it, but not everyone is lucky enough to see it in all stages of growth. These are biological features of this plant. You cannot admire all the organs of this herb at once: you look at the flower when there are no leaves yet, they appear and develop until late autumn, and the achenes are carried by the wind after ripening.
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 awakening spring and renewed nature.
Where yesterday there was snow and only thawed patches were visible, today it has already melted, the hills, cliffs and slopes swollen with moisture have warmed up railways. Elastic, succulent pedicels with brown scales and woolly pubescence appear from the ground. You won’t immediately notice them among last year’s withered grass, until the yellow-golden heads of inflorescences open at the tops of the stems.
Coltsfoot blooms in April - May. In terms of flowering duration (38 days), it has no equal among spring primroses. Inflorescences are single bright yellow baskets. On warm fine days, in the morning, when the sun warms up, the flower baskets stretch out on their stalks, straighten, turning towards the sun, and bask in its rays until 17 o'clock. Smart flowers close and droop along with their stems, as if they are falling asleep. So the plant solves three problems:
protects itself from possible night frosts;
keeps pollen from getting wet;
When the flower opens, pollen lands on the stigma, cross-pollination occurs, and the plant is protected.
During this period, there are still few insects in nature, and an ingenious device guarantees pollination, after which the inflorescence falls asleep forever and wakes up as a fluffy dandelion.

Coltsfoot flowers are good weather forecasters, as they determine the onset of cold and rainy weather in advance with an accuracy no worse than a barometer.

Flowering stems up to 25 cm high are erect, unbranched, pubescent, covered with oblong, mauve, brownish-red sharp scale-like leaves on top. By mid-summer, the leaves will harden and form continuous dense carpets along the bottom of ravines and clay slopes and sandy spits of rivers. They last until late autumn, but are severely battered by the winds and therefore become thinner, with rusty spots. They fulfilled their purpose and accumulated reserves in perennial rhizomes. nutrients.
Due to the fact that the leaves develop after the plant has flowered, they are simply not noticed or examined. The eye is attracted by the flowers of other plants that had appeared by that time.
Coltsfoot bears fruit in May - June. The achenes are collected in a beautiful ball, like a dandelion, but several times larger. Someone is lucky enough to see such fluffy balls in calm weather, and he wonders why he has never seen such huge dandelions before.
Not only people, but also honey bees. This firstborn of the spring flora, one of the earliest honey plants, has great importance, since with the supply of nectar and pollen the strength of bee colonies noticeably increases.
Coltsfoot flowers reproduce well both by seeds and vegetatively. In the fields, this is a difficult weed to eradicate, since a lot of achenes are formed, 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 distribution area of ​​coltsfoot. It grows in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America where Europeans brought it. In Russia, it can be found throughout the European part, in Siberia, the Ussuri region, and 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 one populates bare empty spaces.
The coltsfoot plant has the old Russian folk name kamchuga grass, which took root due to the use of its leaves and inflorescences in traditional medicine for the treatment of “kamchuga” - the ancient name for gout.
Throughout its long history, there are countless popular names for camouflage grass. The name “coltsfoot” is truly Russian. It is given due to the fact that the lower surface of the leaf is covered with numerous fine hairs and causes a feeling of warmth when touched. This side warms, like a kind and affectionate mother, and on top the leaves are smooth, green and cold, like a stepmother.

Less known popular names: butterbur, two-leaf, cold burdock, mother grass, one-sided grass, tumor leaves. And one more thing: grass near the river, water burdock, rannik, pobel, white fluff, horse's hoof, king potion, forest burdock, mother grass - this is an incomplete list of them.
Camchus grass is one of the oldest and most important medicinal products, which were known back in Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome. ethnoscience Many countries use the leaves and flowers of cassava grass to treat various diseases.

(lat. Tussilago) - a genus of perennial herbaceous plants of the Asteraceae, or Asteraceae (Asteraceae) family ( Asteraceae). The only kind is Common mother and stepmother (Tussilago farfara). Popularly, this plant has many names - mother grass, water burdock, icy burdock, burdock, two-leaf, butterbur. The grass is widespread throughout Eurasia ( Western Europe, Siberia, Kazakhstan, mountains of Central and Asia Minor), in North Africa and North America. For growth, mother and stepmother prefer clay and moist soils, free of turf. Although it can be found on pebble and sandy river shallows. It grows along the banks of rivers, lakes, in meadows, along embankments, the slopes of ravines and landslides. Mother and stepmother are the most harmful in crops vegetable crops, since it develops very quickly and grows intensively, which leads to the complete displacement of other plants.

Mother and stepmother description

The root system is in the form of a long, creeping, branched rhizome, which goes deep into the soil by about 1 m. Two types of shoots are formed from the buds located on the rhizome: vegetative and flowering. Already in early spring Flowering shoots begin to develop; they are erect, low, up to 30 cm high. On each shoot there is a head (flower), which fades after flowering. The heads are bright yellow, 2-2.5 cm in diameter. The flowers are both hollow, but sterile. When ripe, the heads become fluffy, very similar to dandelions. The flowering period begins as soon as the snow melts, in early spring.

Fetus- a slightly curved cylindrical achene with a tuft. Flowering shoots die off after flowering.

Vegetative shoots begin to develop some time after flowering begins. These shoots bear several rounded, heart-shaped, irregularly toothed leaves on long petioles that form a rosette. The upper surface of these leaves is smooth, and the lower surface is white tomentose. If you touch a leaf with your palm, you can feel that the leaf is warm below and cold on top.

The plant is very prolific. Maximum amount seeds that one plant can produce is approximately 19 thousand seeds. The seeds have high germination capacity and germinate in the soil from a depth of up to 2 cm.

Mother and stepmother harmfulness

Mother and stepmother brings harm agriculture, littering plantations with cultivated vegetables. Measures to combat this weed should be aimed at destroying young rosettes. The maximum effectiveness of this method will be achieved in the early stages of plant development. A combination of surface treatment techniques with layer-by-layer deep loosening and pruning of rhizomes shows very good results in the fight. To herbicides wide application mother and stepmother show resilience. It is necessary to use substances that penetrate the rhizome. For example, tordan, banvel.

Mother and stepmother medicinal properties

Since ancient times, mother and stepmother were considered medicinal plant. In Ancient Greece and Rome it was prescribed for treatment bronchial asthma and bronchitis. In Paris, the emblem of pharmacies was an image of this plant. Such emblems were hung above every shop that sold medicinal herbs.

The above-ground part of the plant is used as a medicinal raw material. Flower heads are collected during flowering, that is, in March-April. They are usually separated from the stem. It is necessary to dry in the shade, spreading it on paper in one layer. The collection of leaves begins after flowering, when they become smooth, but have not yet begun to become covered with brown spots. The best time for this is the beginning of summer. Leaves need to be dried just like flowers, in the shade and in one layer. Dried inflorescences are stored for two years, and leaves for three years.

The plant is very rich in beneficial microelements. The leaves contain zinc, which allows coltsfoot to be used as an anti-inflammatory agent in the treatment of sore throats, hoarseness, laryngitis, colds and others. infectious diseases. The herb tincture is used externally to treat skin infections, wounds, and burns. Coltsfoot has a beneficial effect on the digestive system, relieves diarrhea and is an appetite stimulant.

Also mother and stepmother indispensable assistant in maintaining and restoring the beauty of skin and hair. This plant has a high content of amino acids - cystine, sulfur and silicon dioxide. Cystine promotes hair strengthening and growth, high level silicon soothes the scalp, eliminates dandruff and dead skin cells, gives elasticity and shine to the hair. Mother and stepmother extract will help increase skin elasticity; thanks to this extract, the functioning of the sebaceous glands is regulated.

Mother and stepmother are able to normalize metabolism. Sometimes it is used for weight loss.

Application medicines based on this plant has contraindications. Do not use infusions and decoctions long time, more than 1.5 months. Do not give to children under two years of age. It is also prohibited to take mother and stepmother during pregnancy and breastfeeding women. People with liver diseases should never consume this plant in any form.

Be careful! Self-medication is dangerous to life and health. Before using medications, you should definitely visit a doctor.

Mother and stepmother photo

Common mother and stepmother (Tussilago farfara) Leaves of common coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) Seeds of coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

COLTSFOOT(Latin: Tussilágo fárfara). The literal translation is “melancholy cough.” From the Latin words “tussis” - cough, “lago” - to drive away and “farfara” - “carrying flour” (there is a powdery coating on the bottom of the leaf).

The Russian name arose due to the peculiarity of the coltsfoot leaves: the underside is fluffy and soft - “mother”, and the upper side is smooth and cold - “stepmother”. People say: “A mother loves how the summer sun warms, but a stepmother doesn’t like how cold she is.” Winter sun" Symbolizes maternal care.

This plant has another rather rare feature - its flowers appear before the leaves. For this, the British call the coltsfoot “son before father.”

Popular names: mother grass, king potion, two-leafed grass, icy bastweed, March flower, tobacco grass (in some areas its leaves are “smoked” for coughing), horse’s hoof, riverside grass, rannik, podbel (due to the whitish color of the lower sides of leaves), kamchug grass (kamchug is the ancient name for gout), fire lettuce. The last name indicates another feature of the coltsfoot. It grows well in a fireplace, where there are no competing plants, and excellent fertilizer - ash - promotes its rapid growth. If you dig up the soil in the place of the forest, especially spruce, where it grows, you can find embers - a trace of an old fire.

Coltsfoot blooms earlier than all herbaceous plants and longer than other primroses - 38 days.

There are many mostly sad legends about its origin. One woman’s own daughter died. She spent all her days in the cemetery, stroking her palms and caressing the earth in which her beloved child rested. From mother's love arose a flower that felt warm side a leaf covered the girl's grave. But this woman also had a stepdaughter, whom she did not love. And therefore the other side of the sheet was harder and colder.

Another old Russian legend tells that a long time ago, one man fell in love with another and left the family. In his previous family he left a daughter with wonderful golden hair. And so the new wife became jealous of her husband’s own daughter, was angry that he was visiting her, and decided to destroy her. She lured the child to a cliff and pushed him down. The mother realized that her daughter was not at home, ran to look for her, and found her dead. She then rushed into her stepmother’s house and dragged her to the cliff. And then, in the struggle, both fell off a cliff. In this place, small yellow flowers grew to match the golden-haired girl. And the leaves, on the one hand, like a mother’s love, were soft and tender, and on the other, hard and cold, like a stepmother’s hatred. The people called them coltsfoot.

And this legend tells about a happy family in which the mother suddenly died. The children stopped playing and singing, and the father bent over and dried up from grief. Soon, a young widow neighbor bewitched the widower and became his new wife. But life never returned to the house, because the stepmother is not a mother, her voice smells cold, and her touch is angry and prickly. As soon as the sun warmed up in the spring, the youngest daughter began to run with her melancholy to the river and shed tears for deceased mother. One day, crying, she raised her head: and near her feet a yellow flower blossomed. And on the same day, the stepmother disappeared without a trace, and ringing laughter returned to the house again. Since then, this flower began to appear every spring to check if the children were well, and then disappeared again. And in the summer, leaves appear in its place: with a cold top and a warm, soft inner side.

The Ukrainian legend about the mother and stepmother is interesting. That was a long time ago. The husband and wife lived in harmony and love, rejoicing in their children. One day my wife got caught in heavy rain, caught a bad cold and fell ill. She melted every day, like a wax candle. She senses that she won’t be able to get up. He asks his husband: “Oh, Vasily, I’m going to die, apparently. Don't let your kids go to waste, get married. But don’t take the neighbor’s widow, she won’t be a mother to our children. She has enough of her own.”

Vasily buried his wife, and soon wooed the neighbor’s widow, she managed to ingratiate herself into his trust. She still established those rules. She divided the children between hers and her husband. Everything for our own, but nothing for orphans. Her children are dressed, fed, well-groomed, but her husbands are hungry, cold, in old clothes. As soon as the snow melted, the stepmother kicked out other people's children to bask in the sun on the river bank. It was cold for the children in torn clothes, they began to ask:

Sun! Sun! Warm our heads!

The sun took pity on them and placed golden wreaths of its light on their heads, and they warmed the children with their warmth. The stepmother saw this, ran to the river and asked:

Where did you get these wreaths?

“The sun gave us,” answered Vasily’s children. The stepmother turned white with envy and ran into the house and to her children:

Take blankets and quickly run to the river bank. May the sun give you golden wreaths too!

But the sun only burned the top of the blankets and went behind the cloud. An icy wind blew with frost and froze the stepmother's children. And on the banks of the river yellow flowers and green leaves appeared - the mother’s children and the stepmother’s children, and only blankets remained from the stepmother herself. (

The name of the flower Coltsfoot is probably known to all residents of the CIS countries. However, not everyone knows what it looks like and why the plant is called “Coltsfoot”. But the explanation of the name, as is often the case, is extremely simple. And more about this below.

The scientific name of the flower is “Coltsfoot”

It's obvious that this flower distributed not only in the countries of the former Union, but also in many other parts of our planet. For example, in Africa and Asia, this flower is also very easy to find. As for him scientific name, then on Latin it sounds like "Tussiliago". After translating the name into Russian, it becomes clear for what purpose the plant can be used in medicine, because its name can be pronounced as “Kashlegon”. This is exactly what happens; pharmacologists widely use this plant to produce 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 approximately one scenario: a long time ago, a man left his family for another woman, leaving his daughter and mother on their own. However, he systematically visited his own daughter, which haunted his new wife. As a result, jealousy led the new wife, who is a stepmother, to grab her young fair-haired daughter by the hair, take her to a cliff and throw her down into a cold mountain river.

Having learned about what had happened, the girl’s own mother decided to take revenge: she brought her stepmother to that very cliff and wanted to throw her off it, but in the fight the unthinkable happened - both women fell from the cliff. Over time, a flower grew at the site of the death of the 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 leaves on the other. This symbolized mother's love and the indifference of the stepmother.

Why is the coltsfoot flower called that?

If we talk about why the plant was actually named that way, then the truth is not far from the legend. Omitting all the bloody details of the family squabble, we can note the fact that the leaves of the plant actually have front and back sides different coatings: cold, hard and warm, soft. And here a parallel is involuntarily drawn between the genuine love of a real mother for her child, and the attitude of a stepmother.