Cuckoo-flower

Plant 10.

Cuckoo-flower.

Here you see a picture of the cuckoo-flower.

I also found this plant in the polder. It was growing along the road, and next to the ditch.

So actually in the berm. On the place where I found it, it had a lot of sun and it had moist soil.

The cuckoo-flower indeed grows on ditch sides, forests and swamps.

This flower can become 15-50 centimeters high, and it is winterproof.

 

The cuckoo-flower has light purple flowers. Actually they are lilac.

The flowers are 3 centimeters big and they bloom from April until June.

Every flower excist of 4 ‘leaves’ and has 6 stamens.

The cuckoo-flower has green leaves of course.

These leaves grow in groups of 4-7 leaves and they grow directly on the stem. Only a few grow on a sepperate

‘branch’. The edges of the leaves are smooth, and sometimes they are notched.

 

The cuckoo-flower also has fruits. The fruits (A hauw) are 2,5 – 5,5 centimeters long and 1,5

centimeter

wide. The fruits are light green. (Brighter than the stem.) And yes, they are eatable.

The cuckoo-flower can reproduce by the leaflets. When the leaflets fall of the plant, they can grow to a new

one. The seeds cannot germinate very well in a wet area, but the plant will adapt itself to it.

Earlier, the cuckoo-flower was sometimes used as a medicine against spring tiredness.

The flower could also help a bit against some forms of diabetes.