Lungwort [Travel day]

From Mom’s garden in northern Ohio. Don’t know if Mom brought these from Michigan, since her neighbor there (“Edie”) planted the 'Diana Clare' cultivar in Aunt Carol & Uncle Joe’s garden, which Edie managed to some extent. From Edie five years ago: Lungwort’s spotted leaves were thought to resemble human lungs (hence both the genus, Pulmonaria, and common name, Lungwort). This early spring flowering perennial, has its flower starting out pink and ages to blue.

» About the particular species, Pulmonaria officinalis at Missouri Botanical Garden: “Pulmonaria officinalis, commonly known as Jerusalem-sage, Jerusalem cowslip or blue lungwort, is a bristly, clumping, slowly spreading, rhizomatous, herbaceous perennial of the borage family. It is a rough-hairy perennial that grows to 12” tall spreading to 18” wide. It is native to forested areas in Europe. Petioled, ovate-cordate basal leaves (3-5” long) are spotted or blotched with white. Sessile, broad ovate, auriculate-cordate stem leaves are shorter. Funnel-shaped, five-petaled flowers (3/4”long) bloom in forked clusters in mid-spring atop sparsely-leaved flowering stems rising above the foliage. Flowers open pink but age to rose-violet before finally maturing to blue. Different colored flowers may be seen on the plant at the same time.

“Genus name comes from the Latin pulmo meaning lung. In accordance with the Doctrine of Signatures, genus plants were once believed by Medieval herbalists to be an effective remedy for treating lung diseases because the spotted plant leaves purportedly resembled diseased lungs. It is, however, well established today that there is no valid basis for believing genus plants have any value as medicinal plants.

“Common name of lungwort remains today as a description of the resemblance of the spotted plant leaves to a diseased lung.”

» Genus page at PhytoImages

Looking back
1 year ago: “Obsolete”
2 years ago: “ETSOOI’ed again…”
3 years ago: “Viburnum leaves (I think)”
4 years ago: “Photographing lunch”
5 years ago: “Barn art”
6 years ago: “Pre-finals week service dog visit”
7 years ago: “Hover fly on Gomphrena globosa”
8 years ago: “Hoya australis”
9 years ago: “In honor of the super-moon?”
10 years ago: “Well, somebody has to go first!”

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7th May 2021 7th May 21