Plants have long been revered by people, they were valued for their beauty, healing properties, nutrients. That is why the names of many of them are associated with beautiful legends. One of these explains why a simple field plant is given a beautiful name - the centaur flower.
Cornflower blue
The name of the cornflower flower in Russian comes from the male name Vasily. There was a legend that a young plowman gave his heart to a beautiful mermaid, but the lovers could not decide where to live. The guy could not live under water, and the bride did not want to be in the field. So, out of anger, the mermaid turned her lover into a flower that grows between golden spikelets of wheat, and with its bright color reminds of a watery blue surface. But the cornflower has another name. According to the binary nomenclature introduced by Carl Linnaeus, it is called Centaurea cyanus. The word, which is spelled with a capital letter in this name, denotes the genus of the plant. It is easy to guess that it is associated with the mythical creatures of the centaurs, mentioned in the myths of Ancient Greece, they had the torso of an adult man and the body of a horse. Why was a simple cornflower given such a beautiful and even poetic name - the centaur flower?
Why is the cornflower called the flower of the centaur
According to one of the ancient Greek legends, the centaur Chiron, who differed from his fellow tribesmen by his calm disposition and wisdom, was accidentally wounded by his friend Hercules when he was practicing the art of bowing. An arrow with a poisoned tip hit him in the knee, and a half-horse-half-man would certainly have died, but in the valley he found blue flowers and applied their bright petals to the wound. Cornflower juice healed the centaur, neutralized the poison, so since then this plant has been named in honor of the mythical creature. This is how it is mentioned by ancient authors, in particular, in the works of Pliny the Elder, dated to the 1st century AD.
The healing properties of blue cornflower
Despite the existence of this beautiful legend, cornflower juice is hardly able to heal a centaur or a person. In terms of its healing properties, the plant is inferior to mother and stepmother or plantain. However, in medicine, funnel-shaped blue petals are used, located along the edge of the inflorescence. In dried form, they are added to diuretic and choleretic preparations, the extract is used as an antispasmodic. Traditional medicine also favors cornflower flowers - decoctions and infusions are made from them. Also, petals are added to black and green tea as an aromatic addition. Recently, cornflowers have been popular with soap-makers - dried petals are also included in the elite hand-made products.
