Ivan da Marya benefit and harm. Ivan da Marya flower: plant species, legends, magical properties. Collection and healing properties of herbs

Ivan da Marya is a name that is used in relation to several completely different types of plants. They can call tricolor violet, meadow sage, periwinkle, Geneva tenacious, but most often under this name they understand oak maryannik.

Ivan da Marya flower: description

The inflorescence is an apical, rare-colored spicate raceme. Bracts opposite, ovate-cordate, pointed with teeth, pubescent at the base and along the veins. The bracts of the lower part of the inflorescence are green, the middle one is blue-violet at the base, the upper ones are completely purple.

The calyx is tubular with long-pointed teeth (about half the length of the calyx). The flowers are irregular, the pedicels are small, pubescent, turned in one direction. Corolla two-lipped, yellow, with reddish tube and lower lip.

Flowering time is from May to September. It grows in clearings and edges, in oak forests, among shrubs, in marshy meadows.

The flower got its popular name because of the sharp contrast of the yellow corolla and purple bracts. There are many varieties of legends that explain this phenomenon, and all of them are united by the plot of the tragic love of the young man Ivan and the beautiful Marya (in earlier versions - Kupala and Kostroma).

The yellow color of the flower was attributed to the boy, and purple - to the girl. The reasons why young people did not have a fate are different for different stories, but since then these interesting bright flowers have been growing and delighting people.

It is not a pharmacopoeial plant, although it is considered promising for pharmacological research. Its use of the Ivan da Marya flower is known as an insecticidal, anti-inflammatory and wound healing among the people. On the farm, a decoction of seeds was previously used to dye fabrics yellow, as well as to fight insects.

Benefits and harms to human health

The plant is poisonous. Its ground part contains alkaloids and glycosides, including aucubin and dulcite. Especially poisonous seeds. It can cause severe poisoning also in animals that eat it. Take internally - carefully.

Known benefits of Ivan da Marya flower for the body in diseases of the heart, gastrointestinal tract and stomach, hypertension, epilepsy, neuralgia. Outwardly, it is recommended to use it for scabies, diathesis, skin tuberculosis, rashes, rheumatism, for washing wounds. Maryannikovy tea is drunk with scrofula.

You need to use exactly according to the instructions. Failure to comply with the dosage can harm a person. The main manifestations of overdose and poisoning:

  • weakness;
  • pain in the stomach, behind the sternum;
  • nausea and vomiting;
  • drowsiness;
  • weakened cardiac activity.

Treatment in this case: gastric lavage, sorbents, if necessary - symptomatic therapy (caffeine, validol, nitroglycerin, etc.).

It has been scientifically proven that the infusion of Ivan da Marya flower has a calming effect similar to that of tranquilizers. It will be useful for the treatment of the initial stage of epilepsy.

Contraindications

It has no precisely defined contraindications, but as a poisonous plant it is not recommended to be used internally by pregnant women, children and with individual intolerance.

Application of the herb Ivan da Marya

Ivan da Marya flower extracts have antipsychotic properties. They have sedative, hypotensive cardiac, and anticonvulsant effects. Externally used for skin diseases, powder from a dried plant, as well as juice from a fresh one - for wound healing.

For skin diseases

The Ivan da Marya plant has long been used for skin diseases: rashes of various etiologies, eczema, skin tuberculosis, demodicosis, scabies, scrofula. For baths, as well as local washings, an infusion is used.

Tincture recipe: 3 tablespoons of herbs must be poured into 1 liter of boiling water and insisted for 2 hours, then strained.

It also bathes children with diathesis.
Also, poultices are made from grass to places affected by scabies and hard tumors. The juice or dried powder of the plant was used to promote wound healing.

Tincture for heart disease

In the form of tincture, Ivan da Marya is used for pain in the heart caused by vasospasm. It also has a general strengthening effect on the cardiovascular system and stimulates the nervous system.

Mariannik tincture recipe: 1.5 tablespoons of raw materials must be poured into 0.5 liters of vodka, insist, shaking occasionally for 2 weeks.

You need to drink 2-3 weeks, 1 tablespoon 3 times a day, then you should take a 1-week break, then continue treatment.

pressure decoction recipe

A decoction or infusion of the herb Ivan da Marya is drunk for hypertension. You can also use the Ivan da Marya tincture prepared according to the recipe indicated above under pressure.

  • 1 tablespoon of grass is poured with 1 cup of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, strain thoroughly and drink 1 tablespoon 3 times a day;
  • 10-20 g of raw materials must be poured with 200 g of water, insisted on a water bath for 30 minutes, strain the broth and add boiled water to the original volume. Drink 1 tablespoon 2-3 times a day.

Tinctures for neuralgia and epilepsy

Plant preparations are effective for epilepsy. At the initial stage of the disease, the infusion of the flower is used for treatment, and at later stages - as an additional means to relieve convulsions, which makes it possible to reduce the dose of anticonvulsant drugs consumed. A decoction of the flower should be drunk half a glass 2 times a day.
With neuralgia, baths are made from the infusion and decoctions of the Ivan da Marya plant.

Application during pregnancy

Under stress

The action of the active substances of maryannik is mainly aimed at the nervous and cardiovascular systems. It is recommended to drink infusion and tincture during stress, depression, and in fact they are the main cause of many women's diseases. Also, a flower as part of a complex collection is used in the treatment of female benign formations.

From diseases of the intestines and stomach

An infusion of the herb Ivan da Marya for the stomach is drunk twice a day for half a glass. It helps with inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Plant collection and harvesting

The ground part of the maryannik, which is used as a raw material, should be harvested during active flowering (May - September). It can be cut or pulled straight out with a weakly developed root. Dry - in a place closed from direct sunlight, which, moreover, should be well ventilated. You can store up to 10 months, preferably in paper bags or glass containers. Fruits (boxes) can be harvested as they ripen from July to September.

Everyone loves unusual flowers. In order to grow a healthy plant in your flower garden, you should know the subtleties of the content. In this article, the editors have tried to lay out a selection of secrets to prevent death while keeping an unusual flower. The subtleties of the content of large groups of plants are different. A capricious plant requires careful provision of conditions. We recommend that you determine for further activities what species your flower is assigned to.

Maryannik, Ivan da Marya, yellowberry, scrofulous grass

MARYANNIK OAK (Melampyrum nemorosum L.) Leaves opposite, ovate-lanceolate. The flowers are light yellow, two-lipped, collected in spike-shaped inflorescences (yellow lips, red-yellow corolla tube). The flowers have comb-toothed purple bracts. The fruit is an ovoid capsule. Seeds are large, oblong, brown or almost black, with seed. Height 15-60 cm.

The plant is distinguished by a particularly striking contrast of bracts of blue tones and bright yellow corollas. It is very decorative, therefore it often attracted the attention of painters and poets, but when plucked into bouquets, it quickly fades. The flowers of Ivan da Marya produce abundant nectar and are deservedly considered a good honey plant. The seeds serve as fodder for forest game.

Popular names: oak maryannika - Ivan-da-Marya, Ivanets, Ivanova grass, maryannik, brother and sister, pansies, two-flowered, yellowberry, scrofulous grass, fireflower; meadow mariannika - Peter's grass, magpie shavings, field cornflowers, kusharka, lucrets, jaundice; maryannik forest - gnetukha, mare grass; field mariannika - vertebra, bell, ivan-da-marya, yellow-headed, coltsfoot, field grass.

Many legends associated with Ivan da Marya are dedicated to the symbolism of forbidden love. If you believe the fairy tale, the name Ivan da Marya arose as follows: fate separated a brother from his sister, Ivan and Marya, in childhood. When they grew up and met, they fell in love with each other, but when they learned about their relationship, in order not to be separated, they turned into a flower with a double color. The toughest version of the legend says that the sister wanted to seduce her brother, and he killed her for this (see "Legends of the Violet").

Ivan da Marya is the name of several herbaceous plants, the flowers of which (or the upper parts of the whole plant) are distinguished by the presence of two sharply distinguishable colors, most often yellow and blue or purple. The most popular are oak maryannik and tricolor violet. This name is used much less often: Geneva tenacious, meadow sage and periwinkle. They also have two brightly different colors (the violet has a third, white, is not taken into account).

Oak maryannik is found in the northern, middle and southwestern zones of the European part of the country. It grows in forest clearings (sometimes in large massifs), forest edges, hills, in thickets of shrubs, marshy meadows and chalk slopes. The most common plant in our meadows, clearings and edges of deciduous forests, where it blooms from late spring to early autumn (May-September).

Five types of mariannik grow in our zone: oak maryannik (M. nemorosum L.); field mariannik (M. arvensis L.); maryannik meadow (M. pratense L.); forest maryannik (M. silvaticum L.) and cut maryannik (M. laciniatum Kosh). The most common maryanniki: meadow and cut. And now we will talk about the closest relative of the oak maryannik, which is called the meadow maryannik.

Mariannik meadow is very similar to Ivan da Marya, but only it does not have purple leaves, and the flowers are almost white. This type of maryannik is typical for coniferous forests, although it has the specific name "meadow". Meadow maryannik is an annual plant. Every year it begins life as a seed. At the end of spring in the forest every year you see many shoots of maryannik with large oval cotyledons. Seedlings develop quickly and turn into mature plants in a few weeks. In the middle of summer, flowering is already beginning. Mariannik seeds are quite large, white, very similar in appearance to "ant eggs" (ant larvae). These seeds are spread by ants, who carry them throughout the forest. This method of seed dispersal is often found in forest herbaceous plants. Many species of them use the "services" of ants.

The plant is poisonous. The internal use of maryanniki, as poisonous plants, requires great care. It is known that the plant contains traces of alkaloids, glucoside melompicrite (dulcite), and in the seeds - a very poisonous glucoside rinanthin (aucubin), which has a narcotic and local irritant effect. In case of seed poisoning, weakness, drowsiness are observed, and cardiac activity is weakened.

Poisoning of sheep and horses can be observed when they are fed with grain and flour contaminated with maryannik seeds. Sick animals become drowsy, tremble, blood appears in their urine, and a heartbeat is noted. First aid consists in prescribing laxatives first, and then in conducting a course of symptomatic therapy (stimulating, cardiac, etc.).

Currently, it is used only in traditional medicine. For medicinal purposes, the herb of the plant is used, which is harvested during the flowering period. Air dry in the shade or in a well ventilated area. The part used is grass (stems, leaves, flowers) and fruits. Grass is harvested in May - September, fruits - in July - September. How to use: 3 tablespoons of herb mariannika leave for 2 hours in 1 liter of boiling water, strain. Use as an external agent for local baths and washings in case of skin diseases.

It has an insecticidal, anti-inflammatory and good wound healing effect. An infusion of herbs is used internally for scrofula, externally - in the form of baths and washings for scrofula, various rashes and scabies. Fresh crushed herb and its powder speed up wound healing. A decoction of the fruit is used to kill harmful insects. Another type of mariannik has similar properties - field mariannik (Melampyrum arvense L.).

Aboveground part. Decoction - for hypertension, dizziness, heart disease, neuralgia, epilepsy, diseases of the stomach and organs of the gastrointestinal tract; externally (baths, washings, poultices) - for scrofula, skin tuberculosis, scabies, diathesis, eczema, rashes, diseases of the chest, rheumatism and as a wound healing agent. Leaves. Infusion, tea (inside and out) - with scrofula, rashes.

Method of application (Medicinal plants

Oak maryannik, or Ivan da Marya (Melampyrum nemorosum L.)

Mesophyte. Quite demanding on soil conditions. Seeds of oak maryannik germinate in autumn, in September - October. They form a long branching root - in this state, the seeds lie on the surface of the soil, covered with litter. Their further development occurs in the spring, after the snow melts.

Mariannik blooms, preserving the cotyledons, after seeding, it dies off in September October.

Nemoral, Middle South European-Ropean species. It grows in the European part of the USSR, in Siberia - in a single place, in the Irkutsk region, - apparently, as an alien; outside the USSR - in Scandinavia, Central Europe and the Western Mediterranean. Widely distributed in the forest and forest-steppe belt, common in deciduous forests, on the edges, near shrubs, found in damp peaty meadows, very rare in the north-east of the European part.

In Siberia, it is proposed to protect this species in the only known habitat.

Contraindications:

in case of seed poisoning, weakness, drowsiness are observed, cardiac activity is weakened. The toxicity of the plant is due to the presence of aucubin, which has a narcotic and local irritant effect.

Mariannik oakwood

Melampyrum nemorosum

Ivan da Marya

Description: An annual herbaceous plant 15-50 cm high. The stem is straight, branched, pubescent with whitish hairs directed downwards. Leaves opposite, ovate-lanceolate, long-pointed, entire. Flowers on short pedicels, facing one way, one at a time in the axils of the upper leaves, form a loose one-sided brush, the flower has a purple, blue or crimson bract. Flowers slightly drooping. The corolla is bright yellow. The fruit is an ovoid, pointed capsule. It blooms in late spring and almost all summer until autumn.

Distribution: Widely distributed in the forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, in the Caucasus, in the western, north-western regions of the forest-steppe of Ukraine, in Siberia - adventive. It occurs along the edges, among shrubs, in wet peat meadows, on chalk slopes.

Part Used: The herb and fruits are used. The grass contains alkaloids, glycosides, and the seeds contain aucubin.

Collection and harvesting: the grass of the plant is harvested during the flowering period. Air dry in the shade or in a well ventilated area. Grass is harvested in May - September, fruits - in July - September.

Application: The plant has insecticidal, anti-inflammatory and good wound healing properties. In folk medicine, infusion of herbs in small doses is also used for diseases of the stomach, heart and urticaria, and externally in the form of baths and washings - for scrofula, various rashes, eczema and scabies, skin tuberculosis and diathesis in children. Fresh crushed grass promotes the fastest healing of wounds.

3 art. l. herbs maryannika oakwood per 1 liter of boiling water, leave for 2 hours, strain. Use as an external agent for local baths and washings for skin diseases.

Maryannik oak, Ivan da Marya

Sem. SCROPHULARIACEAE - Oak maryannik, Ivan da Marya - Melampyrum nemorosum L.

Oak maryannik is an annual herbaceous plant with an underdeveloped root system. Stem erect, 15-50 cm in height, obtusely tetrahedral, with long opposite obliquely upward deflected branches, covered with stiff, downwardly directed hairs. The leaves are opposite, glabrous above and slightly hairy below. Flowers on short stalks, turned to one side, sitting one by one in the axils of the upper leaves, forming a loose one-sided brush, each flower is provided with a bract, painted in bright purple, more intense at the top; the corolla is bright yellow, with a red-brown curved tube, the lower lip of the corolla is longer than the upper one. The fruit is a capsule, ovoid, pointed, equal to or shorter than the calyx, glabrous, bifurcates when opened.

Blooms from June to autumn.

Grows on forest pastures, on bushes, hills and edges, forms thickets.

Dosage form: 3 tablespoons of maryannik insist 2 hours in 1 liter of boiling water, strain. Use as an external agent for local baths and washings in case of skin diseases.

The plant is poisonous.

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It so happened that many people have heard about the Ivan da Marya flower, but few people have at least some idea about it. But the contrasting beauty of this plant can be a highlight in any garden. And besides, the flower will be at hand if there is a need to use its healing properties. The article will help to understand the features of the medicinal plant, and the attached photos will allow you to enjoy the beauty of the flower.

Ivan da Marya: legends and traditions

Knowledge about the Ivan da Marya flower goes back centuries. In pagan times, the Slavic ancestors called the flower Kupala da Mavka. Only with the advent of Christianity did he acquire a new name, which has survived to this day.

According to East Slavic myths, a brother and sister lived in the world - Kupala and Kostroma, separated by chance and parental disobedience in childhood. After many years, an unfortunate accident brought them together again, but they did not know about their relationship, and fell in love with each other. And only after the wedding did they find out that their hearts were bound by forbidden love. The bitter truth forced the brother and sister to choose between death and disgrace. They chose death - Kostroma drowned herself in the depths of a forest lake, and became the first Mavka mermaid, and Kupala threw himself into the heat of the fire.

The gods, looking at such a tragedy, took pity and turned the brother and sister into a beautiful flower - partly blue, like water, partly yellow, like fire. With the advent of Christianity, Kupala was renamed Ivan (in honor of John the Baptist), and Mavka, his miserable sister, was named Mary, in honor of the Virgin.

Medicinal plant in natural conditions

Rumor gives magic to a two-faced flower plucked on the day of the summer solstice (on the Kupala holiday):

  • helps to escape from persecution to a person wearing it with him;
  • the owner of a marvelous plant will be able to move quickly, even if there is an old horse under him (in the modern interpretation, he will help the racer in any car);
  • freshly squeezed juice of the plant was given to drink to people who had lost their memory or reason;
  • keeping a mystical plant in the house helps protect the home from evil intentions and spirits;
  • acts as a keeper of peace between husband and wife.

Botanical features of the Ivan da Marya flower

An annual herbaceous plant from the extensive Norichnikovye family, preferring partial shade in forests and groves. Of this family, two species grow in central Russia: Maryannik oak and Maryannik meadow.

  1. It grows in height from 10 to 50 cm. Moreover, the height of the maryannik directly depends on which plant it “joined”.
  2. The pointed lanceolate leaves of Ivan da Marya are located opposite each other on an erect stem. The inner side of the leaves is equipped with short hairs.
  3. The two-lipped flowers are yellow, and the upper woolly-toothed stipules are colored blue (they are not flowers).
  4. Flowering lasts from June to September.
  5. Ivan da Marya intensively secretes nectar, being an excellent honey plant.
  6. It reproduces mainly by seed. The spread of the plant is facilitated by ants, who love to feast on juicy seeds and take them away.

Attention! Cows cannot be pastured in areas where Ivan da Marya grows, because the plant is poisonous and rich in glycosides. Milk from cows that have eaten maryannik will be bitter and unpleasant in taste.

Preparation and pharmacological properties

In official medicine, preparations containing the Ivan da Marya flower are not used. However, traditional healers use maryannik in their medicinal potions, using recipes that have come down to our days from time immemorial.

For the preparation of medicinal raw materials, the entire aerial part of Ivan da Marya, including its fruits, is used. During the flowering period, the plant is either pulled out with a spine or cut off. Then the medicinal raw materials are dried in the shade or in any room with access to fresh air, spread out in a thin layer on a dry surface, or hung in bunches. The dried flower of Ivan da Marya is stored in a dry room with good ventilation for 2 years in cloth bags.

Ivan da Marya flower is rich in flavonoids and organic acids.

Attention! Mariannik seeds contain the glycoside rinanthin (aucubin), which is toxic.

The medicinal plant has the following effects:

  • sedative (acts like tranquilizers);
  • anticonvulsant;
  • hypotensive;
  • wound healing;
  • anti-inflammatory;
  • has a positive effect on the cardiovascular and nervous systems.

Ivan da Marya: indications for use

In folk medicine, mariannik is widely used to treat scrofula (in the modern interpretation, a type of atopic dermatitis in children). The long-standing use of the plant for the treatment of this ailment is evidenced by one of the popular names of the flower - Scrofula. With this skin lesion, Ivan da Marya is applied externally - the child is washed in a decoction or lotions are made.

Healers use dry crushed maryannik grass as a wound healing and antiseptic agent, preventing putrefactive processes. In the form of an infusion, Ivan da Marya is taken orally for hypertension and heart disease. Herbal tea relieves the condition with neuralgia and epilepsy.

However, treatment should not be started without consulting an experienced herbalist. In case of violation of the dosage and regimen of taking Ivan da Marya, the following manifestations are possible:

  • discomfort or pain in the stomach;
  • nausea, vomiting;
  • irritability;
  • drowsiness;
  • slow heart rate;
  • slowing of the pulse;
  • weakness.

If one or more of the above symptoms appear, it is necessary to stop using Ivan da Marya, wash the stomach and seek medical help. It would not be superfluous to recall that Ivan da Marya belongs to poisonous plants, and oral use by pregnant women and children is strictly contraindicated.

It so happened that many people have heard about the Ivan da Marya flower, but few people have at least some idea about it. But the contrasting beauty of this plant can be a highlight in any garden. And besides, the flower will be at hand if there is a need to use its healing properties. The article will help to understand the features of the medicinal plant, and the attached photos will allow you to enjoy the beauty of the flower.

Ivan da Marya: legends and traditions

Knowledge about the Ivan da Marya flower goes back centuries. In pagan times, the Slavic ancestors called the flower Kupala da Mavka. Only with the advent of Christianity did he acquire a new name, which has survived to this day.

According to East Slavic myths, a brother and sister lived in the world - Kupala and Kostroma, separated by chance and parental disobedience in childhood. After many years, an unfortunate accident brought them together again, but they did not know about their relationship, and fell in love with each other. And only after the wedding did they find out that their hearts were bound by forbidden love. The bitter truth forced the brother and sister to choose between death and disgrace. They chose death - Kostroma drowned herself in the depths of a forest lake, and became the first Mavka mermaid, and Kupala threw himself into the heat of the fire.

The gods, looking at such a tragedy, took pity and turned the brother and sister into a beautiful flower - partly blue, like water, partly yellow, like fire. With the advent of Christianity, Kupala was renamed Ivan (in honor of John the Baptist), and Mavka, his miserable sister, was named Mary, in honor of the Virgin.

Medicinal plant in natural conditions

Rumor gives magic to a two-faced flower plucked on the day of the summer solstice (on the Kupala holiday):

  • helps to escape from persecution to a person wearing it with him;
  • the owner of a marvelous plant will be able to move quickly, even if there is an old horse under him (in the modern interpretation, he will help the racer in any car);
  • freshly squeezed juice of the plant was given to drink to people who had lost their memory or reason;
  • keeping a mystical plant in the house helps protect the home from evil intentions and spirits;
  • acts as a keeper of peace between husband and wife.

Botanical features of the Ivan da Marya flower

An annual herbaceous plant from the extensive Norichnikovye family, preferring partial shade in forests and groves. Of this family, two species grow in central Russia: Maryannik oak and Maryannik meadow.

  1. It grows in height from 10 to 50 cm. Moreover, the height of the maryannik directly depends on which plant it “joined”.
  2. The pointed lanceolate leaves of Ivan da Marya are located opposite each other on an erect stem. The inner side of the leaves is equipped with short hairs.
  3. The two-lipped flowers are yellow, and the upper woolly-toothed stipules are colored blue (they are not flowers).
  4. Flowering lasts from June to September.
  5. Ivan da Marya intensively secretes nectar, being an excellent honey plant.
  6. It reproduces mainly by seed. The spread of the plant is facilitated by ants, who love to feast on juicy seeds and take them away.

Attention! Cows cannot be pastured in areas where Ivan da Marya grows, because the plant is poisonous and rich in glycosides. Milk from cows that have eaten maryannik will be bitter and unpleasant in taste.

Preparation and pharmacological properties

In official medicine, preparations containing the Ivan da Marya flower are not used. However, traditional healers use maryannik in their medicinal potions, using recipes that have come down to our days from time immemorial.

For harvesting, the entire aerial part of Ivan da Marya, including its fruits, is used. During the flowering period, the plant is either pulled out with a spine or cut off. Then the medicinal raw materials are dried in the shade or in any room with access to fresh air, spread out in a thin layer on a dry surface, or hung in bunches. The dried flower of Ivan da Marya is stored in a dry room with good ventilation for 2 years in cloth bags.

Ivan da Marya flower is rich in flavonoids and organic acids.

Attention! Mariannik seeds contain the glycoside rinanthin (aucubin), which is toxic.

The medicinal plant has the following effects:

  • sedative (acts like tranquilizers);
  • anticonvulsant;
  • hypotensive;
  • wound healing;
  • anti-inflammatory;
  • has a positive effect on the cardiovascular and nervous systems.

Ivan da Marya: indications for use

In folk medicine, mariannik is widely used to treat scrofula (in the modern interpretation, a type of atopic dermatitis in children). The long-standing use of the plant for the treatment of this ailment is evidenced by one of the popular names of the flower - Scrofula. With this skin lesion, Ivan da Marya is applied externally - the child is washed in a decoction or lotions are made.

Healers use dry crushed maryannik grass as a wound healing and antiseptic agent, preventing putrefactive processes. In the form of an infusion, Ivan da Marya is taken orally for hypertension and heart disease. Herbal tea relieves the condition with neuralgia and epilepsy.

However, treatment should not be started without consulting an experienced herbalist. In case of violation of the dosage and regimen of taking Ivan da Marya, the following manifestations are possible:

  • discomfort or pain in the stomach;
  • nausea, vomiting;
  • irritability;
  • drowsiness;
  • slow heart rate;
  • slowing of the pulse;
  • weakness.

If one or more of the above symptoms appear, it is necessary to stop using Ivan da Marya, wash the stomach and seek medical help. It would not be superfluous to recall that Ivan da Marya belongs to poisonous plants, and oral use by pregnant women and children is strictly contraindicated.

Ivan da Marya - this is the name of several types of plants. Most often it refers to oak maryannik, which also has other names:

  1. bicolor,
  2. ivan,
  3. brother and sister,
  4. medunka,
  5. lime tree,
  6. scrofulous grass,
  7. jaundice,
  8. Ivanova or well-aimed grass.

The male and female names were popularly given to plants that bloom with a multi-colored or distinct pair of inflorescences. These include meadow sage, periwinkle, Geneva tenacity, tricolor violet, campanula.

The colorful name of the flower was given for the contrasting combination of a yellow corolla of a flower with a purple bract. Such an unusual phenomenon is associated with the legend of the tragic love of a young man and a beautiful woman. Ivan is associated with yellow, and Marya with purple. Ancestors endowed the flower with magical properties and kept it in the house as a talisman of marital happiness and protection from evil forces.

Ivan da Marya is part of the wreath for divination for Ivan Kupala. The union of yellow and blue is considered to be a combination of the elements of water and fire. According to popular beliefs, the flower contributes to the establishment of an alliance between man and the gods, heavenly and earthly. The flower gives eternal happiness, harmonizing the elements of yin and yang.

The grass collected on the Kupala night was tied into brooms and sent to take a bath in order to gain health and well-being.

Name

Ivan da Marya or oak maryannik (Melampyrum nemorosum) refers to herbaceous annuals. It has a straight, branched stem 15-60 cm in height with pubescence of white villi. Opposite green leaves are heart-shaped at the base with a pointed edge. The root is thin and undeveloped, so the flower is effortlessly pulled out of the ground.

Description

Mariannik attracts attention with a spectacular, two-tone coloring of the brushes, which is not difficult to see from the photo.

Flowers on short stalks of juicy yellow color are collected in apical inflorescences, similar to a spike-shaped, one-sided brush. They are decorated with jagged, ovoid bracts, purple at the top and green at the base. The color of the bract can be crimson, bright purple or blue. The flower cup resembles an elongated bell. Inflorescences are formed in the axils of the apical foliage.

The flowering period lasts from May to September. It ends with the formation of a small ovoid fruit. The box contains oblong, trihedral dark brown seeds. After falling, the seeds have time to germinate, and in October a root system is already formed, which allows you to overwinter under the fallen leaves. After the snow melts, development continues.


Plant features

Small flowers produce abundant nectar that attracts bees, and the fruits serve as food for forest dwellers.

Interestingly, thanks to the aromatic oils on the seeds, ants love them and actively move along their paths, where dense thickets grow in spring. Thus, the Ivan da Marya flower (photo) spreads to new territories.

The flower is common in forests and forest-steppe. Occurs on forest edges of deciduous type, in groves, among shrubs, on wet meadows and slopes of ravines. Chooses shady places for growth, where it forms dense growth.

Common types

The genus Mariannik includes 13 plant species. Of these, in the conditions of the middle lane grow:

  • oak maryannik
  • maryannik field
  • meadow
  • forest
  • split mariannik

Beneficial features

Oak maryannik is a poisonous plant that requires careful handling. However, it has long been used in herbal medicine as a sedative, wound healing, anticonvulsant and anti-inflammatory effect.

Ivan da Marya flowers are used for heart disease and digestive problems, rheumatism, hypertension, neuralgia and epilepsy. Healing baths are prepared for skin diseases such as eczema, scabies, rashes, diathesis. Tea from mariannik is drunk with scrofula.

Medicinal raw materials are stems, leaves, flowers and even seed pods. The ground part is harvested during flowering.

Once upon a time, a decoction of maryannik fruits was used to dye fabrics yellow and as an insecticide against insects.


Home flower Ivan da Marya

The indoor variety of Ivan da Marya is tuberous begonia, which differs significantly from the wild species. Outwardly, it looks like a bush with leaves rounded at the base, elongated in one direction. Leaf outline with fine teeth. The flower throws out two types of buds. Some are terry, similar to the buds of red roses, while others are ordinary, of 5 petals.


Begonia tubers for planting should be free from damage and signs of rot. They are put up for germination in February. The container is filled with a loose substrate with the addition of peat. The tubers are laid out on a damp surface and do not sprinkle. Keep in a bright and warm place. The soil is added when the sprouts reach 6-8 cm. Flowering occurs in June and lasts until autumn. Watering is moderate, along the edge of the pot. Recommended organic and mineral supplements.

Perennial indoor flower propagated by seeds and cuttings.

Growing in the garden

When growing Ivan da Marya in a garden plot, for decorative purposes or for medicinal raw materials, they begin with soil preparation. It should be loose and moist. Under the preliminary digging, top dressing is made from mullein.

The laying of seeds is carried out in winter in order to get early shoots and May flowering in the spring. It should be borne in mind that maryannik has low seed germination and in the spring the crops will have to be renewed. Large seeds are pressed into the soil or sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. For development and bright flowering, the flower needs a humid environment.

The plot is chosen in partial shade so that the sun's rays can give brightness to the inflorescences. Top dressing Ivan da Marya is not required. The flower independently extracts nutrients from other plants or synthesizes them.

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