24,00 zł – 101,00 zł
A perennial plant pollinated by butterflies. The saw-wort is perfect for wet places, loves partial shade or diffused light. A perennial plant that served as a source of the yellow dye used to dye wool.
Wild, non-cultivar seeds.
SKU: N094
Polish name: dyeing sickle
Latin Name: Serratula tinctoria L.
Family: Asteraceae (composite Compositae), subfamily: Carduoidae
Status in Poland: native, quite common, naturally rarer in the north of Poland
A perennial rhizomatous plant with the purple flower-like inflorescences in the form of capitula, branching at the top , with the longitudinally ribbed, erect stems with the leaves along the entire length.
The stems has leaves spiral arranged along their entire length (which distinguishes it well from the much rarer species in Poland, S. lycopifolia ), usually 0.3-1.0 m high.
It produces the two types of sharply toothed at the edges leaves: the basal, and the lower wide, on stalks, lyre-elliptical, and the upper ones deeply indented, sessile and pinnate, getting smaller towards the inflorescences.
The capitular inflorescences are gathered in the second-order inflorescence in the form of corymbothyrsus. Single heads of this plant are characterized by relatively small dimensions (0.6-1.2 cm in diameter) and an ovoid shape. They are composed of dozens of the identical, disc, usually bisexual, but often functionally female florets in a dark pink or pale lilac color (there are also albino mutants). They are protected by the greenish or purple flaky, involucres without appendages.
The fruit is a typical achene, in the case of this species indistinctly ribbed, brownish, spindle-shaped or laterally flattened.
It prefers moist places, at least periodically, but it can survive a short drought. As befits a species of bright forests and meadows with high vegetation, it loves partial shade or diffused light. It requires organic, peaty or loamy-peat soils, not necessarily very fertile, with a reaction close to neutral.
Latin species name, like Polish refers to its primary use – dyeing fabrics yellow. The dyes were obtained from the rhizomes, commonly, though incorrectly, called by herbalists and weavers as the roots. Both the whole herb and the rhizome itself (called the root) were used in medicine.
The protandrous flowers are pollinated by butterflies.
Saw-wort is more and more eagerly sown on bee pastures and field margins in wet and variable humid sites, similar to traditionally used molinia meadows, thermophilous oak forest and mixed coniferous forest.
