Rue is a perennial, fragrant plant in the vegetable patch or garden and blooms in summer with small yellow flowers. What is special is that at the highest flower of the compound inflorescence, five yellow petals grow and at the other flowers at approximately the same height, four. Due to the aromatic scent, cats avoid the plant and insects and butterflies come to the pollen and nectar. The blue-green leaves provide a beautiful accent in the vegetable patch or garden. The plant is phototoxic and can cause skin irritation and even burns. Rue has medicinal properties.
- Rue (Ruta graveolens)
- Against cats
- Habitat
- Sheet
- Flower
- The medicinal properties of rue
Rue (Ruta graveolens)
The rue (Ruta graveolens) or lozenge, is a perennial plant and belongs to the rue family (Rutaceae). The rue family is a family of the dicotyledonous plants. The dicots (dicots), along with the monocots (monocots), are a group of plants called flowering plants. Dicots have the seed in dicots, which are necessary for the germination of a new plant. The rue is related to the citrus fruits, such as:
- Lime (Citrus aurantifolia);
- Lemon (Citrus limon);
- Bergamot (Citrus bergamia);
- Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi);
- Mandarin (Citrus reticulata);
- Clementine (Citrus reticulata ‘Clementine’);
- Orange (Citrus sinensis).
Ornamental plant
The rue originated in southeastern Europe and is often grown as an ornamental plant in the Netherlands. The plant is a semi-shrub and grows to about 1.2 meters in height when flowering. A few times the plant has been found wild and it is then a rare sighting.
Phototoxic
The plant is phototoxic, which means that after contact with the plant on a beautiful sunny day, skin irritations on forearms, hands and lower legs can occur and even blistering. The leaf of the rue has furocoumarins on the leaf surface that irritate the skin under the influence of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This is a protection against insect damage for the plant. Also known for this is the giant hogweed, common hogweed and the bergamot plant.
Against cats
Rue in the garden keeps cats out of the garden. The typical smell of rue is very strong to the touch and cats don’t like that. Dogs are also known to walk around the plant with a wide arc. The content of the ethereal substances have as main constituent methyl nonyl ketone and aliphatic ketone and is therefore also called rue ketone. Frogs don’t like the smell either.
Habitat
The plant grows in light to medium, dry and nutrient-rich soil. The place should be calcareous and somewhat sheltered, so that the plant does not constantly have full sun. Rue can withstand drought and heat well. The plant is hardy and the leaves remain on the plant in winter. In the spring you have to cut the leaves back to the old wood and transplant once after 6 years.
Roots, stems and leaves
The cream-colored fleshy roots of the rue are branched. The round hairless stems growing out of this, are sometimes woody at the base. The branches on the petioles are protruding.
Sheet
The blue-green leaves are double to triple pinnate, which means that the petiole has several leaf segments. The leaf segments start narrow from the petiole and are ovate to spatula-shaped at the top of the leaflet with a smooth leaf margin. The leaf segments are blue frosted on the top and give the special color. The shrub can eventually become wild and tousled and requires pruning. Prune back to 10 to 20 centimeters above the ground in cloudy weather. This is because the plant is phototoxic.
Flower
The rue blooms in July and August with yellow-green flowers. The flowers of the abundantly flowering plant are in umbels (umbels) at the end of the stems. The first end flower is regularly quaternary and is more on the inside of the screen. The other flowers in the side screen are regularly quaternary. Each petal has two stamens with anthers containing the pollen. In the center of the flower is the pistil with the green ovary, the style and the stamp. Under the pistil is a thickening with nectar (disc or disc). The rue is ambiguous, which means that there are male and female genitalia.
Pollination
The eight to ten stamens are the male sex organs of the rue and they ripen one by one, day after day. After standing upright for one day and producing pollen, the stamen bends back and it is the next stamen’s turn to produce pollen. At the bottom of the pistil (the female sex organ) is the nectar and insects on their way to it, rubbing along the stamen and can provide cross-pollination. When all the stamens have been, the pistil ripens and the style grows. If there is no cross-pollination by insects, the stamens will straighten up again, towards the stigma and make self-pollination possible.
Fruiting and propagation
The fruit of the rue is a round capsule and about one centimeter in size. The capsule is four- or five-celled. The seed of the fruit can be planted in the garden in spring (April) or cuttings of the plant can take root in the ground in the summer. Cover these cuttings with leaf litter for the winter.
The medicinal properties of rue
Rue has been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Rue harvested fresh is no longer used in the 21st century because it is toxic in large quantities and can cause severe stomach upset, skin irritation and photosensitivity. Rue is still used in homeopathy and mainly works on the connective tissue, tendons, muscles, ligaments, cartilage and bones. Rue works for:
- overload of flexor tendons;
- sprain ankles, wrists;
- the interior of the bones;
- headache due to overuse of the eye muscles;
- bursitis;
- carpal tunnel syndrome;
- sprains.
Do you know
- This spice was often put through wine by the ancient Romans;
- The strong scent is incorporated in the Latin name; Ruta graveolens. ‘Ruta’ means ‘to release’, ‘gravo’ means ‘very’ and ‘olens’ means ‘fragrance’.