CORNFLOWER (centaurea cyanus)

Annual. Member of the Daisy family. Also known as Bluebottle, Batchelor�s Button or Knapweed. Pretty blue flowers on stems up to 2 ft (60 cm) high. Cultivated plants have many coloured flowers. Attractive to butterflies and bees. Rare in the wild, being previously a common corn field weed. Flower extracts are used in shampoos.

Its name centaurea comes from Chiron, the centaur, whom the plant cured when an arrow tipped with the blood of Hydra wounded him. Since then the plant has been assumed to drive away snakes. The cyanus part comes from Cyanus, who loved the plant so much he spent all his time in corn fields making garlands from them. When he died, the goddess Flora transformed him into the plant. However, the name may also come from the nymph, Cyane, daughter of the river god, Meidanros � she was changed into a dark blue spring whose waters fed the small brook Anapis near Syracuse. People used to believe that the sky had sent down bits of itself to the fields.

Cornflowers can stop a nosebleed if picked on Corpus Christi Sunday. Water distilled from Cornflower petals was used for weak eyes. Petal juice will dye linen blue but isn�t permanent. Stagecoach drivers used to wear Cornflowers as buttonholes in the nineteenth century. The flower was symbolic of rustic life.

Used to be known as Hurt Sickle because of its ability to blunt sickles when harvesting � thus it became eradicated from its natural corn field habitat.

Plant in sun. Flowers June to September.

Seeds � sow directly where they are to flower, in a sunny spot, in spring.

*This sheet is provided for information only and is in no way a prescription for use. Please seek the advice of a qualified herbalist before using*

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