Four-leaved herb Paris is a poisonous grass plant of the Melanthiaceae family.
#1
Four-leaved herb Paris
#3
#5
Name of the genus originates from its appearance: a black berry in the middle of a four-leaf plant looks like a crow’s eye. It is also called crow’s berries, cuckoo’s tears, culprit, cross grass and voronyashnik.
#4
Herb Paris grows throughout Europe, the Urals, the Caucasus and Western Siberia. It prefers coniferous and mixed forests with fertile grounds rich in humus. It can be found in damp locations with lots of shade for instance in bush or oak woods, on riverbanks and ravine slopes. Occasionally it can be found in the steppes.
The plant has long horizontal rootstock and smooth upright stem up to 30 sm long. Herb Paris comes into blossom in May. The fruit, which is a small black berry with a touch of dark grey, ripens in August. In winter, the green part of the plant dies off and in spring, a new shoot grows up from the root system.
#9
The plurannual propagates by seeds and vegetatively by root expansion. In moderate climates, it can spread out to dozens of square meters.
#6
All parts of the plant are very poisonous. Berries of herb Paris are often mixed with bilberries or blue berries. However, they contain a deadly substance – saponin, which in case of eating more than 10 berries can cause spasms and heart failure.
#7
Juice from herb Paris leaves smells unpleasantly. Even animals do not eat crow’s eye berries, only birds can raven on them. However, the plant is rich in vitamin C, pectic substances, citric and apple acids. It is prohibited from being used in traditional medicine whereas in folk medicine it is used with great care.
Вороний глаз четырехлистный. Источник: commons.wikimedia.org
#8
Despite the fact that it is widespread, herb Paris is listed in the Red Book of Belgorod and Volgograd regions where the area of oak groves is decreasing.
#10
Kuzebai Gerd National Museum of the Republic of Udmurtia
read morehide
00:00
00:00
1x
Four-leaved herb Paris
Dimensions
40x30 cm
Technique
Herbarization
Collection
Exhibition
5
Point your smartphone camera to open in the appOpen in app
Share
