Name: Susak umbrella
SUSAK UMBRELLA
Perennial plant with thick creeping rhizome and numerous longish root lobes. The stem is cylindrical, leafless, up to 130 cm tall. The leaves are basal, linear, trihedral in the lower part, grooved, emerging from the rhizome. The flowers are pale pink, collected in umbrellas at the top of the stem. Blooms in June-July. The fruits are collected leaves.
Distributed in the southern part of the forest and forest-steppe zones of Siberia and the Far East. It grows along the banks of small rivers, ponds and meadow swamps.
Medicinal raw materials are rhizomes and leaf juice. The rhizomes are harvested in late autumn. They contain a large amount of starch, sugar and gum (up to 50%), fat and proteins (within 13%), i.e., in composition they are close to rye flour.
In folk medicine, a decoction of rhizomes is taken as a laxative, diuretic, anti-febrile and uterine remedy. Externally crushed rhizomes are used as an emollient for infiltrates formed as a result of inflammatory processes. Lichen and white spots are treated with leaf juice.
In Yakutia, rhizomes are not often used for food.