A hardy annual, growing to 1 m (3 ft.) high, with finely toothed, long, ovate leaves and shaggy, thistle-like, yellow flower heads set in spiny bracts.<\/p>\n
Cultivated in Egypt, China and India since ancient times, safflower was a valued dye plant producing several colors, including a pink dye, used for the original \u201cred tape\u201d of Indian bureaucracy. It was introduced to Europe from the Middle East during the mid-16th century, for its medicinal properties, and is now cultivated for the oil extracted from the seeds.<\/p>\n
Grows in any light, well-drained soil and tolerates dry conditions. Propagated by seed, sown in spring.<\/p>\n
Tea, infused from fresh or dry flowers, is taken to induce perspiration and reduce fevers and is mildly laxative. Infusions are also applied externally for bruises, skin irritations and inflammations.<\/p>\n
Oil extracted from the seeds is low in cholesterol and has a delicate flavor. The flower petals, which are slightly bitter, have been used as a substitute for saffron in coloring food.<\/p>\n
Flowers produce a yellow dye with water and red dye with alcohol. They are dried for adding to pot-pourri and as \u201ceverlasting\u201d flowers for dried arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hardy annual, growing to 1 m (3 ft.) high, with finely toothed, long, ovate leaves and shaggy, thistle-like, yellow flower heads set in spiny bracts. History and traditions Cultivated in Egypt, China and India since ancient times, safflower was a valued dye plant producing several colors, including a pink dye, used for the original […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,109,85,115,97,156,105,125,124,114,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-z","category-acidic-soil","category-annual","category-fall","category-full","category-herbaceous","category-loamy-soil","category-orange","category-pink","category-summer","category-yellow"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Carthamus tinctorius","common-names":"Zaffer, Fake Saffron, and Dyer's Saffron","family":"Asteraceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":115,"name":"Fall","slug":"fall","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":115,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":46,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":125,"name":"Orange","slug":"orange","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":125,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":12,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":124,"name":"Pink","slug":"pink","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":124,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":54,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":121,"name":"Yellow","slug":"yellow","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":121,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":76,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":85,"name":"Annual","slug":"annual","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":85,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":44,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":156,"name":"Herbaceous","slug":"herbaceous","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":156,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":5,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 3 - 9","region_or_country_of_origin":"Asia, the Middle East, and Africa","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 1 to 4 feet tall<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}