Heal-All in Bloom

Heal all in bloom (photo from Flora Pittsburghensis, Creative Commons license)
Heal all in bloom (photo from Flora Pittsburghensis, Creative Commons license)

Mid to late June is not a good time for wildflowers.  The woodland flowers have gone to seed and most field flowers haven’t opened yet so it’s hard to find anything blooming.  Heal-all (Prunella vulgaris) obliges. It blooms from June to September.

Heal-all or Self-heal is a member of the mint (Lamiaceae) family native to Europe, Asia and North America.  It’s not picky about sun and soil and it survives mowing so you’ll find it in waste places, lawns and along woodland edges. This photo from the Netherlands shows a typical setting.

Heal-all plants in bloom, Netherlands (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Heal-all plants in bloom, Netherlands (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Though it’s mixed in with other plants heal-all’s flower head stands up like a knob studded with small tubular flowers that range in color from deep purple to pale lavender-white.

If heal-all is annoying in your lawn consider this:  You can eat it or apply it as a poultice on wounds or irritated skin.

For another look at the flower and some musing about its presence in North America, see this vintage article from 2010: Heal All

 

(photo credits, Creative Commons licenses: top photo from Flora Pittsburghensis, second photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the images to see the originals)

2 thoughts on “Heal-All in Bloom

  1. This beauty took over our old pasture one summer and such a sight! It still appears, but just here&there. (just outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

  2. So I thought “hmm, looks like Lavender.” It’s in the same family, Lamiaceae, which makes me wonder where and when it diverged.

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