A tall, hardy, strong-smelling perennial, growing to 1.2 m (4 ft.), it has square, hollow stems, with deeply lobed, prominently veined leaves, set opposite each other. The mauve-pink, double-lipped flowers appear in the upper leaf axils throughout summer. Widely grown in herb gardens for its attractive foliage.<\/p>\n
In ancient Greece, this herb was first given to pregnant women to calm their anxieties, which is the origin of its common name. The generic name, Leonurus, refers to the plant\u2019s supposed resemblance to a lion\u2019s tail, but the specific name, cardiac, comes directly from the Greek word for heart because of its widespread use in former times for treating heart palpitations and afflictions. Macer\u2019s Herbal, 1530 goes further, giving it supernatural powers against wicked spirits.<\/p>\n
Grow in moist but well-drained soil in a sunny position. Propagated by seed sown in spring, or by division in spring or autumn.<\/p>\n
Flowering tops dried for use in infusions, liquid extracts and tinctures.<\/p>\n
Research has shown that this herb does have a beneficial and calming effect on the heart, and is mildly sedative. It also has antibacterial and antifungal properties but despite its original usage, origins and name, it is not to be given to pregnant women in modern herbal medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A tall, hardy, strong-smelling perennial, growing to 1.2 m (4 ft.), it has square, hollow stems, with deeply lobed, prominently veined leaves, set opposite each other. The mauve-pink, double-lipped flowers appear in the upper leaf axils throughout summer. Widely grown in herb gardens for its attractive foliage. History and traditions In ancient Greece, this herb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,111,107,102,97,138,105,110,98,127,124,122,103,114,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acidic-soil","category-alkaline-soil","category-chalky-soil","category-clay-soil","category-full","category-herbaceous-perennial","category-loamy-soil","category-neutral-soil","category-partial","category-perennial","category-pink","category-purple","category-sandy-soil","category-summer","category-white"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Leonurus cardiaca","common-names":"Motherwort , Cow wort , Lion's ear , Lion's tail , Cardiaca crispa, Cardiaca glabra, Lamium cardiaca, Leonurus glabra","family":"Lamiaceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"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":124,"name":"Pink","slug":"pink","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":124,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":54,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":122,"name":"Purple","slug":"purple","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":122,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":60,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":118,"name":"White","slug":"white","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":118,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":113,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":138,"name":"Herbaceous Perennial","slug":"herbaceous-perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":138,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":56,"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"},{"term_id":111,"name":"Alkaline Soil","slug":"alkaline-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":111,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":117,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":107,"name":"Chalky Soil","slug":"chalky-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":107,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":31,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"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"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"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"},{"term_id":98,"name":"Partial","slug":"partial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":98,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":126,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 3 - 8","region_or_country_of_origin":"Asia and southeastern Europ","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 4 ft. tall<\/p>\n Wide<\/strong>: 3 ft.<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666","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=666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}