Low-growing adapters

Photos Arne Ader
Translation Liis
Self-heal
 
Self-heal; Woundwort            Harilik käbihein         Prunella vulgaris
 
It grows in all kinds of landscapes, dry as well as humid, even on shore pebbles and on paths. The perennial herb with hairs tightly pressed against the stem and leaves has upright purple-blue flowering shoots which very rarely also can be white. The bilabiate flower has a dome-shaped upper lip and a lower lip with toothed edge. 
 
In high grass the self-heal grows as high as the other surrounding plants but in a low-mowed lawn it stays quite small: up to 5 centimetres high, but still offering the lawn both beauty and colour with its purplish patches.
 
The inflorescence reminds of a spruce cone when growing in tall grass, and of a stumpier pine cone growing in short grass or a pasture. Such adaptability is rare, and so in our meadows many low-growing plants have become rare.
 
When dried the heads of seeds remind of hop cones. Although they are not related, self-heal was once called field or meadow hops.
 
Self-heal


 

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