Prunella vulgaris, SE: Brunört, DE: Kleine Braunelle,
NL: Gewone brunel, UK: Common Selfheal, Heal-All, Heart-of-the-earth

Scientific name:  Prunella vulgaris L.
Swedish name:  Brunört, skogshumle, vanlig brunört
German name:  Kleine Braunelle
Nederlandse naam:  Gewone brunel
English name:  Common Selfheal, Heal-All or Heart-of-the-earth
Family:  Lamiaceae, Mint family, Kransblommiga växter

Sweden, Flowers, Travel, Ragunda

Life form:  Perennial herb
Stems:  10-50 cm, 4-angled, crimson tinged, and erect to decumbent, glabrous to short-hairy
Leaves:  Lance shaped, serrated and reddish at tip
Flowers:  Two lipped and tubular, top lip purple, and bottom lip is often white
Flowering Period:  June-August
Fruits:  Fruit-spike
Habitat:  Waste ground, grassland, woodland edges, usually on basic and neutral soils

Prunella vulgaris, Brunört, Kleine Braunelle, Gewone brunel, Common Selfheal, Heal-All, Heart-of-the-earth


Derivation of the botanical name:
Prunella, brunella, Brunfels, is from the German Braune, a kind of "quinsy" which the plant was supposed to cure.
vulgaris, Latin for "common".
  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
History:
  • According to the 16th-century herbalist John Gerard, ‘it serves for the same that Bugle does, and in the world there are not two better wounds herbs, as has been often proved'.
  • The 17th-century botanist Nicholas Culpeper wrote that the plant is called selfheal because ‘when you are hurt, you may heal yourself’.

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