Dioecious cat’s foot (Antennaria dioica L.)

Dioecious cat’s foot – a plant from the family of Compositae (Sotrozyaae) Other names: antenaria dioecious, immortelle

Description:

Herbaceous low (10-30 cm) dioecious plant; stems and leaves densely felt-pubescent; flowers in baskets, and on some plants only pistillate flowers develop, on others – bisexual flowers; basket wrappers are dry, hard, dyed white, pink or purple; fruits are oblong achenes with a tuft. It blooms in May-June. The cat’s paw grows in pine forests, on hills, on sandy soil. Occurs frequently.

Medicinal use:

A decoction of cat’s paw grass is taken for pulmonary tuberculosis, convulsions, as a sedative, for hypertension, female diseases; they wash themselves with a decoction of cat’s paw grass for jaundice; with diathesis, childhood eczema, tuberculosis, the skin is watered with a decoction and the babies are bathed in the decoction. The cat’s foot is official in France, in homeopathy. In the pharmacological test of the herb, a hemostatic and choleretic effect was established.