Description

Latin name: Leonurus cardiaca
Also know as: Motherwort, throw-wort, lion’s ear, lion’s tail

Leonurus cardiaca – Motherwort Seeds

Motherwort has a long history of use as an herb in traditional medicine in Central Europe, Asia, and North America. Like many other plants, it has been used for a variety of ills. Midwives used it for a variety of purposes, including uterine tonic and prevention of uterine infection in women, hence the name Motherwort.

It was historically used in China to prevent pregnancy and to regulate menstruation. Motherwort has also been used to ease stomach gas and cramping, menopausal problems, and insomnia.

About Motherwort

Motherwort is probably native to the southeastern part of Europe and central Asia where it has been cultivated since ancient times. Its natural habitat is beside roadsides, in vacant fields, waste ground, rubbish dumps and other disturbed areas. This plant prefers well drained soil and a partly shady location. Introduced to North America as a bee foraging plant and to attract bumble bees.

Leonurus cardiaca has a squarish stem which is clad in short hairs and is often purplish, especially near the nodes. The opposite leaves have serrated margins and are palmately lobed with long petioles; basal leaves are wedge shaped with three points while the upper leaves have three to five. They are slightly hairy above and greyish beneath. Flowers appear in leaf axils on the upper part of the plant and have three-lobed bracts. The calyx of each flower is bell-shaped and has five lobes. The corolla is irregular, 8 to 12 mm long, fused, long-tubed with two lips. The upper lip is convex and covered with white hairs and the lower lip is three-lobed and downward-curving and spotted with red. The flowers are pink to lilac in colour often with furry lower lips. There are four protruding stamens, two short and two longer, and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp. The plant grows to about 60 to 100 cm in height and blooms in mid to late summer

Additional information