Wild alpine violet - this plant has lot of secrets

Wild alpine violet - this plant has lot of secrets

Our hikes and explorations through the nature within the scope of our project work, of course, always let us meet with known plants, so at least we thought at first, but then it turned out to be just little known, when we did some more detailed research.

We were well acquainted with the well-known Alpine violet, most of you, dear readers, know as a plant at home. Did you know, for example, that the alpine violet is known as a healing plant in folk healing and in the German translation of the botanical name is known with the following names too:
cyclame, red soil or red earth

In the folklore of the Alps, in the Balkans too, the Alpine violet was used as a traditional medicinal plant for centuries, but in modern medicine it is hardly known. Since the plant is poisonous, it should be used very carefully and - if at all - only being used externally or in homeopathic doses. Today, the Alpine violet is hardly ever used and is used only in ready-made preparations or in homeopathy. The poison and healing plant is pain-relieving when used externally. It also helps with gout as well as rheumatism and can help greatly diluted with constipation. The poison and healing plant works as: painless and painful laxative

The European Alpine violet is highly toxic! Even 0.3 grams of the tuber are effective toxic and higher doses can be fatal.

In homeopathy, the small-cut tuber of the Alpine violet is used as a general painkiller in severe dilution. It also helps with complaints such as premenstrual syndrome and cycle-related chest pain.

  • Internal use (as a homeopathic remedy)
    Constipation pain
    Gout rheumatic complaints
    rheumatism
    headache
    premenstrual syndrome
    cycle-related chest pain

The European alpine violet is native to the Southern and Eastern Alps and the Balkans. It thrives there on calcareous soils in mixed forests and shady areas.
While in Austria it is often found scattered in all the federal states, it is found in Germany in Bavaria only. Here it is even protected. The European alpine violet is the only species of the genus alpine violet which actually grows in the Alps. The other 22 species are growing in the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor.

Occasionally, the European Alpine violet is used as an ornamental plant in hardwoods and at edges of shrubs. It likes chalky soils and half-shady sites.

Characteristic and interesting are the beautiful flowers, but not only the beautifully patterned leaves and the bright, upwards growing flowers, but also the capsule fruits. These are sunk as the maturity grows directly through the stem into the earth, becoming more and more curved and growing. If the capsules are in the soil, they open and thus ensure their spread. One therefore often finds smaller collections of Alpine violet, which spread out on a large surface.

Stay tuned and go your own way through the wonderful nature, as long as that is still possible.

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