Rubia peregrina
| Rubia peregrina | |
| Light: |   |
| Moisture: |   |
| Hardiness: | 7 |
| Soil pH: | 5.6-8.4 |
| Evergreen | |
| Height: | 0.3' |
| Native to: | |
| Medicinal Rating: | |
| Tea: | Yes |
 | |
Rubia peregrina (common name: wild madder)
Propagation: Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame. Stored seed can be very slow to germinate[1]. Prick out the seedlings when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in light shade in the greenhouse for the first year. Plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer.
Division in spring or at any time in the growing season if the divisions are kept well watered until established[1]. Larger divisions can be planted out direct into their permanent positions. We have found it best to pot up the smaller divisions and grow them on in a lightly shaded position in a cold frame, planting them out once they are well established in the summer.
Cultivation: Prefers a loose moist leafy soil in some shade[1]. Tolerates dry soils but quickly becomes scorched when growing in full sun[1]. Plants grown in fertile well-limed soils produce more pigment in the root[2].
Range: Western and southern Europe, including Britain, to N. Africa.
Habitat: Hedges, thickets, scrub and stony ground in the south and south-west of Britain[3].
Medicinal: Abortifacient, aphrodisiac, diuretic, emmenagogue[4][5].
Usage: A red dye is obtained from the roots[6].
Soil: Can grow in light and medium soils.
Wind: Tolerates maritime wind exposure
In Leaf: Evergreen
Flower Type: Hermaphrodite
Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Huxley, Anthony. The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press, 1992.
- ↑ Buchanan, Rita. A Weavers Garden.
- ↑ Clapham, Arthur and Tom Tootin, Edmund Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, 1962.
- ↑ Uphof, Johannes. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim, 1959.
- ↑ Usher, George. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable, 1974.
- ↑ Grieve, Margaret. A Modern Herbal. Penguin, 1984.