COLTSFOOT(lat. Tussilágo farfara). The literal translation is “mukonosny cough”. From the Latin words "tussis" - cough, "lago" - drive away and "farfara" - "carrying flour" (there is a powdery coating on the lower part 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: "The mother loves how the summer sun warms, but the stepmother does not like - cold, like the winter sun." Symbolizes maternal care.
This plant has another rather rare feature - its flowers appear before the leaves. For this, the British call coltsfoot "son before father."
Folk names: mother-grass, king-potion, double-leafed, cold lapukha, March flower, tobacco grass (in some places its leaves “smoke” for coughing), horse hoof, near-river grass, rannik, podbel (due to the whitish color of the lower side of the leaves), Kamchuzhnaya grass (kamchug - old name gout), fire salad. The last name indicates another feature of the coltsfoot. It grows well on a fire, where there are no plants - competitors, and an excellent fertilizer - ash contributes to its rapid growth. If you dig up the soil in that place of the forest, especially spruce, where it grows, you can find coals - a trace of an old fire.
Coltsfoot blooms before all herbaceous plants and longer than other primroses - 38 days.
There are many mostly sad legends about its origin. One woman's daughter died. She spent all her days in the cemetery, stroking her palms, caressing the ground in which her beloved child rested. From maternal love, a flower appeared, which, with the felt warm side of the leaf, covered the girl's grave. But this woman also had a stepdaughter whom she did not love. And so the other side of the sheet was more rigid and cold.
Another old Russian legend tells that a long time ago, one man fell in love with another and left the family. V old family he had a daughter with wonderful golden hair. And so the new wife became jealous of her husband for her own daughter, was angry that he went to her, and decided to destroy her. I lured the child to the cliff and pushed it down. The mother realized that her daughter was not at home, ran to look for her, and found her dead. She then rushed to her stepmother's house and dragged her to the cliff. And then in the struggle both fell off the cliff. In this place grew small yellow flowers to match the golden-haired girl. And the leaves, on the one hand, like mother's love, were soft and tender, and on the other, hard and cold, like the hatred of a stepmother. 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 with grief, dried up. Soon a young widow, a neighbor, married the widower and became his new wife. But life never returned to the house, because the stepmother is not a mother, her voice blows cold, and her touches are evil and prickly. As soon as the sun warmed up in the spring, the youngest daughter began to run with her longing to the river and shed tears about dead mother. Once, 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 are well, and disappear again. And in summer, leaves appear in its place: with a cold top and warm soft inside.
The Ukrainian legend about coltsfoot is interesting. That was a long time ago. The husband and wife lived in harmony and love, rejoiced at the 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. Feels like she can't get up already. She asks her husband: “Oh, Vasily, I will die, apparently. Don't let the 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 betrothed - the same neighbor's widow, she managed to ingratiate herself with his confidence. She also made those rules. She divided the children into her own and her husband. Everything for their own, nothing for the orphans. Her children are dressed, fed, well-groomed, and her husbands are hungry, cold, in old clothes. As soon as the snow melted, and already the stepmother drove out other people's children to bask in the sun on the river bank. It's cold for the kids in torn clothes, they began to ask:
Sun! Sun! Warm our heads!
The sun took pity on them and put golden wreaths of its light on their heads, 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, - Vasily's children answered. The stepmother turned white with envy, ran into the house and to her children:
Take blankets, and rather run to the river bank. May the sun give you golden wreaths!
But the sun only burned the top of the blankets and went behind the cloud. A cold wind blew with frost and froze the stepmother's children. And yellow flowers and green leaves appeared on the banks of the river - the children of the mother and the children of the stepmother, and only blankets remained from the stepmother herself. (
Today I walked with a camera. What a charm - coltsfoot! It is still cool, there is snow here and there, the buds on the trees are just swelling, and this modest plant is already delighting everyone with its sunny flowers!
And here is a story about where the coltsfoot got such a name from:
Like little suns, the flowers of the mother-and-stepmother shine on clay hills, along the banks of streams and lowlands. On sun-warmed places blaze yellow inflorescences of this herb. This herb has a strange name: coltsfoot. And it is connected with the structure of the leaf: on top the leaf is dark green, shiny and smooth, and below the leaves are covered with a thick layer of whitish hairs. Put this leaf on your cheek outside- and you will feel a hard chill, and now turn the sheet over and attach the other side - and you will feel warmth, tenderness. Here is the motherly warmth and the coldness of the stepmother! Only in early spring This herb has no leaves. They will appear much later - already in the summer ... But the scientific name (Tussilago farfara L.) is associated with the medicinal properties of the leaves of the coltsfoot and means "cough". This excellent cough remedy has been known since ancient times. For medicinal purposes, young leaves are used, decoctions and tinctures are prepared from them. But this is in the summer, and in the spring - these are small suns on a still dull earth!
Home -> Encyclopedia ->Why is the flower MOTHER and STEPMOM so called?
Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant with a creeping, branched, fleshy rhizome, from which one or more flower-bearing stems 10-25 cm tall develop in spring. The flower-bearing stems are erect, low at first, elongating as they bloom, cobwebby-pubescent, seated with ovate-oblong, sharp, often reddish-brown scaly leaves. Real green leaves develop after the flowering of the plant, they are on long petioles covered with silky felt, dense, unevenly notched-toothed along the edges; their upper side is green, cold ("stepmother"), the lower side is white-felt from abundant pubescence, soft and warm ("mother"). The fruits are linear-oblong achenes with a tuft of white long silky hairs.
It blooms in April - early May, before all other herbaceous plants.
It grows on moist clayey and loamy soils - along ditches, banks of rivers and streams, on clay slopes, garbage places, in settlements near houses, usually in small thickets. Distributed in the European part, in the Caucasus, in Siberia to 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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grows on our planet great amount most different plants, and it is very difficult to understand this diversity. But some of these plants are able to bring a special benefit to a person: to prevent the development of certain diseases and even cure them. Just such a famous flower is the coltsfoot, which is found in almost all corners of our country. This perennial culture has long been used by man for medicinal purposes. Let's talk on - / site / about such a plant as coltsfoot, give a description for children, tell legends about such a culture and remember together why it was called that.
About what the mother and stepmother looks like, a description of the plant
The coltsfoot is actually quite easy to recognize. This plant is one of the first to please us with attractive and bright colors. Often, even during frosts, on the thawed patches, the coltsfoot already shows her golden twigs, wrapped in warm hairs. After the sun warms up, the plant gradually blooms flowers. They scatter near roads, along the banks of rivers and streams, as well as on cliffs and meadows. If frost and cold are expected, the flowers immediately hide inside a fluffy collar, which can save the most delicate petals from the cold. Thanks to this property, people predict the weather by coltsfoot.
It is surprising that the flowers of such a plant appear long before the leaves. Only after the petals scatter "parachutes" with the wind, the coltsfoot is covered with foliage. Thanks to this feature, this plant received its English title which literally translates as "son of before father».
The main feature of the coltsfoot is the unique structure of its leaves. Their Bottom part covered with very delicate hairs, and the surface of the leaf is more rigid and cold to the touch.
But where does it come from, why mother and stepmother, why was the plant called that?
Why is mother and stepmother called so?
It is thanks to the structure of its leaves that coltsfoot got its name. After all, delicate hairs are like the touch of a mother, and the hard surface is comparable to the hands of a stepmother. In the people, the plant is also called unilateral and double leaf. Thanks to medicinal properties coltsfoot also bears the name "king-grass" or "king-potion".
Legends associated with coltsfoot
There are several legends about coltsfoot in folklore. The first of them tells about an evil woman who really wanted to get rid of her husband's daughter from her first marriage. She did not want her husband to meet with the girl and with his ex-wife. The stepmother lured the girl to a large cliff and pushed her down. The native mother discovered the loss of her daughter and rushed in search of her. But she did not have time, and ran when the girl had already died. In grief and rage, the woman clung to her stepmother, they fell off a cliff into a ravine together and crashed. And the next day, the bottom of the ravine was covered with an amazing plant with leaves that were soft on one side and hard on the other. Above the plant towered beautiful small flowers of pleasant yellow color which resembled the color of a little girl's hair.
Another legend about the mother and stepmother plant speaks of a happy family in which the mother suddenly died. The children stopped playing and singing, and the father stooped. Soon a young widow neighbor came into the trust of a widower and became his new wife. But life never returned to the house, because the stepmother is not a mother, her voice blows cold, and her touches are evil and prickly. As soon as the sun warmed up in the spring, the youngest daughter began to run with her longing to the river and shed tears for her dead mother. Once, 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. And the flower began to appear every spring to check whether the children are well, and disappear again. And in summer, leaves appear in its place: with a cold top and a warm, soft inner side.
Additional Information
The coltsfoot is one of the first honey plants. Honey from it turns out very tasty, fragrant and sugary. It can provide tremendous health benefits.
And the leaves of the coltsfoot have long been used by our ancestors to treat a variety of diseases. Most often they are used to combat coughs, as well as to eliminate heart ailments, shortness of breath, kidney diseases and many inflammatory processes.
mother and stepmother is amazing plant, which is found in many parts of our country and can be of great benefit to a person.
(lat. Tussilago) - a genus of perennial herbaceous plants of the family Asteraceae, or Compositae ( Asteraceae). The only kind Mother and stepmother ordinary (Tussilago farfara). Among the people, this plant has a lot of names - mother grass, water burdock, cold lapukha, podbel, two-faced, butterbur. Grass is widespread in Eurasia (Western Europe, Siberia, Kazakhstan, mountains of Central and Asia Minor), in North Africa and North America. For growth, the mother and stepmother prefers clay and moist soils, free from turf. Although it can be found on pebbly and sandy river banks. It grows along the banks of rivers, lakes, meadows, embankments, slopes of ravines and landslides. The most harmful mother and stepmother in crops vegetable crops, as 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 deepens 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. Each shoot has a head (flower), which fades after flowering. The heads are bright yellow in color with a diameter of 2-2.5 cm. The flowers are both hollow, but barren. When ripe, the heads become fluffy, very similar to a dandelion. The flowering period begins as soon as the snow melts, in early spring.
Fetus- slightly curved cylindrical achene with a tuft. Flowering shoots die off after flowering.
Vegetative shoots begin to develop some time after the start of flowering. These shoots bear several round-heart-shaped, irregularly serrated 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 the leaf with your palm, you can feel that the leaf is warm from below and cold from above.
The plant is very prolific. The maximum number of seeds that one plant can produce is approximately 19,000 seeds. 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 bring harm agriculture littering plantations with cultivated vegetables. Measures to combat this weed should be aimed at the destruction of young rosettes. Maximum efficiency this method reached in the early stages of plant development. Very good results in the struggle are shown by a combination of surface treatment techniques with layer-by-layer deep loosening and cutting of rhizomes. Mother and stepmother shows resistance to widely used herbicides. It is necessary to use substances that penetrate into the rhizome. For example, tordan, banvel.
mother and stepmother medicinal properties
Since ancient times, mother and stepmother were considered medicinal plant. V Ancient Greece and Rome it was prescribed in the treatment of bronchial asthma and bronchitis. In Paris, the emblem of pharmacies was the image of this plant. Such emblems were hung over every shop that sold medicinal herbs.
Used as a medicinal raw material above-ground part plants. Flower heads are harvested during flowering, that is, in March-April. They are usually separated from the stem. It is necessary to dry in the shade, spreading out 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 early summer. Dry the leaves as exactly as the flowers, in the shade and in one layer. Dried inflorescences are stored for two years, and leaves - three years.
The plant is very rich useful trace elements. The leaves contain zinc, which allows the use of coltsfoot as an anti-inflammatory agent in the treatment of tonsillitis, hoarseness, laryngitis, colds and other infectious diseases. Herb tincture is used externally in the treatment of skin infections, wounds, burns. Mother and stepmother have a beneficial effect on digestive system, relieves diarrhea and is an appetite stimulant.
Also mother and stepmother indispensable assistant in maintaining and restoring the beauty of the skin and hair. This plant has a high content of amino acids - cystine, sulfur and silicon dioxide. Cystine helps to strengthen and grow hair, high level silicon soothes the scalp, eliminates dandruff and dead cells, gives elasticity and shine to the hair. Mother and stepmother extract will help increase skin elasticity, thanks to this extract, the work of the sebaceous glands is regulated.
Mother and stepmother is 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 forbidden to take the mother and stepmother during pregnancy and lactating women. In no case should people with liver diseases consume this plant in any form.
Be careful! Self-medication is dangerous to life and health. Before using drugs, be sure to visit a doctor.
mother and stepmother photo
Common mother and stepmother (Tussilago farfara) 
Leaves of mother and stepmother (Tussilago farfara) 
Seeds of mother and stepmother (Tussilago farfara)