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CULTURAL AND WILD PLANTS
Periwinkle. Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application
Directory / Cultivated and wild plants Content
Periwinkle, Vinca. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism Sort by: Periwinkle (Vinca) Family: Apocene (Apocynaceae) Origin: The genus Periwinkle has a distribution area in Europe, Asia and Africa. Area: Periwinkle is common in temperate and tropical zones of many countries of the world. In nature, it grows in forests, shrubs, on hillsides and along the banks of water bodies. Chemical composition: Periwinkle plant contains a large amount of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, glycosides and other biologically active substances. Economic value: Periwinkle is an ornamental plant and is popular for decorating gardens, parks and flower beds. Also in medicine, extracts from the leaves and roots of Periwinkle are used to treat certain diseases, such as headaches, nervous disorders, heart and vascular diseases, digestive problems, and others. Legends, myths, symbolism: In many cultures, the periwinkle is associated with love and fidelity. In some countries, it is called the "flower of love", "flower of friendship" or "flower of fidelity". There is a legend that if two lovers find two periwinkles, they must exchange them in order to maintain love and friendship for life. In some cultures, the periwinkle is also associated with peace and harmony. In Japanese culture, this flower is a symbol of modesty and simplicity, as well as a sign of the approach of spring. In Christian symbolism, the periwinkle is associated with motherhood and mercy. In the Middle Ages, it was even used as a remedy for various diseases. Periwinkle is also often used in literature and poetry, where it symbolizes beauty, tenderness and romance.
Periwinkle, Vinca. Description, illustrations of the plant Periwinkle. Legends, myths, history
The Latin name of this plant - vinca - is derived from the verb "to wrap around". A beautiful legend tells how Flora once walked through the forest and, admiring the violet, did not notice the periwinkle growing nearby at all. He became jealous of the goddess and began to attract her attention to himself. When Flora noticed the persistent plant, the periwinkle complained to her that it was too small and had neither a name nor a smell. The goddess of flowers took pity on the plant and endowed it with a noticeable growth, a name and resistance to cold. However, the aroma of periwinkle never acquired - after all, according to legend, flowers receive this gift only at the moment of their birth. Many signs related to marriage are associated with the periwinkle. In Austria and Germany, it was used for divination by the betrothed. In some other countries, the periwinkle symbolizes the happiness and consent of the young spouses, and also protects the house from lightning strikes. Periwinkle flowers, collected between the Assumption and the Nativity of the Virgin, allegedly have the ability to drive away evil spirits, so in the old days they were worn on themselves or hung over the front door. The image of this flower is widely used in the texts of folk songs. Periwinkle was the favorite flower of the French writer, philosopher and educator of the XVIII century Jean-Jacques-Rousseau. In his youth, he was passionately in love with a woman who sheltered him from the persecution of the Swiss authorities in her house. Her name was Madame de Varane. One day Rousseau and his lover were traveling together. Madame de Varane saw a periwinkle in bloom and gave a cry of joy. This seemingly insignificant episode remained for life in the heart of Rousseau, as memories of first love remain in the soul of any person. In the writer's hometown - Geneva - grateful descendants erected a wonderful monument to him. It is located on an island named after Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The entire territory adjacent to the monument is planted with blue, modest flowers. They were so dear to Jean-Jacques Rousseau! Author: Martyanova L.M.
Lesser periwinkle, Vinca minor L. Botanical description, range and habitats, chemical composition, use in medicine and industry
Synonyms: periwinkle, brilliant green, grave grass, burial ground. An evergreen plant of the kutrovy family (Arosupaseae), with a recumbent, rooting stem up to 60 cm long, with opposite ellipsoidal, shiny, leathery leaves. Flowers azure, solitary. Range and habitats. It is found in Ukraine, Crimea, the Caucasus, sometimes in the southern, middle and western strips of the European part of Russia. It grows along the edges of forests, along the steppe slopes, in bushes. Chemical composition. Minorin alkaloid, alkaloids vincamine (devincan), vinine, pubiscin were isolated from the leaves of periwinkle. Vinca alkaloids have some chemical similarities with reserpine, so in recent years this plant has received much attention. It also contains ursolic acid, vitamins: C - 993 mg%, carotene-8 mg%, rutin, flavonoids. Application in medicine. Vinca preparations have sedative, hypotensive, vasodilating, hemostatic, antimicrobial and astringent properties. Alkaloid devincan moderately lowers blood pressure and has sedative properties. The mechanism of hypotensive action is based on the ability to lower vascular tone and peripheral vascular resistance. Devinkan also expands the vessels of the brain. Authors: Turova A.D., Sapozhnikova E.N.
Periwinkle. Interesting plant facts
It is unlikely that there is another plant in the world that has gained such fame and enjoyed such fame at one time as a small, modest, blue, with hard, shiny, like lingonberries, leaves of the forest mauvais ton, "periwinkle", in French "la pervenche ". To pick this flower and admire it, at the end of the XNUMXth century, young and old, townspeople and townspeople, gentlemen of the court and ladies, high state dignitaries, ministers and even the kings themselves went to the edges of forests and gardens. And all why? Because it was the favorite flower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Scourging all mankind mercilessly, hating his closest friends in his soul and seeing everywhere only enemies pursuing him, this genius became soft-hearted, became a child, as soon as he was transferred to the world of plants. Life among them, among nature, served for him a renewal of his tormented soul and body. He saw in them that pure, perfect creation, as it came out of the hands of God, a creation not yet corrupted, not distorted by the touch of man. He calmed down among them soul. Periwinkle, moreover, was especially dear to him for the memories of the happiest years of his youth, for the memories of lost happiness. As a young man, almost a boy, J.-J. Rousseau, caressed and sheltered from the Swiss authorities persecuting him by the sweet, cordial Madame de Varane, fell head over heels in love with her and, subsequently becoming her lover, considered this time the happiest in his life. And then one day, when they were traveling together from Chambéry to Le Charmet, on one steep climb up the mountain, wanting to rest her porters, Madame Varane got out of the stretcher (at that time it was the custom for ladies to travel only on a stretcher) and walked beside him. Suddenly, a blue flower flashed in the bushes. It was our evergreen periwinkle. Madame de Varane came nearer to him, and, looking up, exclaimed: "Ah! it's a periwinkle in bloom!" Then Rousseau hardly paid attention to this exclamation and, carried away by his conversation, went on. But this moment, apparently, as it sometimes happens with any of us, was deeply imprinted in his soul, and when, many years later, botanizing with his friend Dupeyrou on a picturesque mountain near Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, he accidentally stumbled in the bushes on this flower, then all the happy past suddenly resurrected before him, and he exclaimed with delight: "Ah! Yes, this is a periwinkle!" This cry of joy broke out of him, as he himself tells, 18 years after that happy journey that we have just talked about, and broke out with such force precisely because those moments of happiness that he now recalled were in all his hopeless life the only ones that, according to him, gave him the right to say: "And I lived too!" All this J.-J. Rousseau described in his "Confessions", and when this famous book went out of print and they read the touching story of his love in it, then all of Paris rushed to the famous botanical garden, where periwinkles grew in abundance to admire this blue flower of Rousseau. Meanwhile, the fame of Rousseau's book grew and grew: it was read both in provincial cities and in villages, both nobles and ordinary townspeople read it - all the literate inhabitants of France, and at the same time, of course, the popularity of the periwinkle also grew. Everyone who read now wanted to look at least once at the famous flower of the brilliant writer, and everyone went to look for him: some in the surrounding forests, some in the gardens, fields - in a word, where there was a hope of meeting him. And since the fame of "Confession" was not limited to France alone, soon everyone in other countries read it, was carried away by the touching love story of Rousseau, and at the same time became interested in periwinkle ... And in this way, our humble flower received the fame we talked about. But everything in the world is transient, and over the years, of course, the glory of the periwinkle would have faded, the connection of this pretty flower with the fate of a genius should have been forgotten, if the Swiss, or, better, the Genevans, had not taken care to support this memory. Having repented of their coldness towards the famous compatriot, the Genevans decided to perpetuate the memory of Rousseau during his lifetime by erecting a beautiful monument to him in his homeland, in Geneva. They set it up in the middle of their wonderful lake on a picturesque island, which since that time has received the name of the island of J.-J. Rousseau, and tried to furnish him with what was especially dear to Rousseau during his lifetime. But what could be so dear to him in the world? Of course, wild flowers and among them the most beloved periwinkle. It was to them that the Genevans planted both the entire foot of the monument itself and the flower beds surrounding it. And since then, everyone who visits Geneva visits the island of J.-J. (and this is a must for a foreign tourist), admires this flower, recalls the love story of Rousseau and takes the flower, of course, with the permission of the watchman who is here, in memory of the great thinker. Not knowing the Rousseau flower in Switzerland is considered a lack of education.
Periwinkle also always enjoyed the love of the German people and was even a rival of the forget-me-not, since, along with the beautiful blue color, it also served as a herald of the imminent onset of spring - it was, as it were, the first swallow among flowers. And since, moreover, its leathery, brilliant green leaves were distinguished by such strength and vitality that they did not die from the cold and retained their fresh appearance even under snow, it was soon transferred from the forest to the garden - as a symbol of joyful vitality, and from here - and to cemeteries, to expensive graves - as a sign of evergreen love and never-fading memory. As a result of all this, a person who is always thirsting for happiness, always seeking the fulfillment of some desire, has long attributed to the periwinkle a special magical power. So, the Austrians still have a belief that if on the night of the feast of St. Matthew (February 24) a girl throws a wreath of periwinkles into running water and then, circling silently on the shore blindfolded, catches him, then this wreath will serve her wedding wreath. The Hanoverians do this fortune-telling in a slightly different way. Fortune-telling takes place with them on the same night, but the Hanoverian girls weave not one, but two wreaths - one of periwinkles, the other of straw, and let them float in a large vessel on the water, and a handful of ash is placed on the bottom of it. Then the fortuneteller is blindfolded, and, circling, she must by feel catch the wreaths floating on the water. If she catches a wreath of periwinkle, then this means that she will marry this year, if she catches a wreath of straw, then she will face some kind of misfortune, and if she touches the ashes, then death. Periwinkle also, according to the Germans, has the property to drive away all evil spirits. But for this it must be collected in the fall between two holidays in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos, between August 15 - the day of the Assumption of St. Mother of God and September 8 - the day of Her Nativity. If you carry a periwinkle plucked at this time with you, then neither the devil nor any other evil spirits will have any power over the wearer, and if you hang it over the front door of the house, then all this evil spirits will not have the power to enter the house. And therefore, a plucked periwinkle should never be thrown into the rubbish yard, but always into a stream, so that it does not die of thirst. Periwinkle planted in the garden brings happiness, and placed in a bouquet - unchanging love. On the same basis, periwinkles are planted, as we have already said, on the graves of the dear dead, and wreaths woven from them are placed at the head of the dead, since these wreaths allegedly tend to preserve the body of the deceased from decomposition. Periwinkle also played a significant role in the Middle Ages - in the trial of people accused of agreements with the devil. The judge had to, invoking the devil, pluck a periwinkle leaf and, pronouncing the name of the accused or suspect, throw it into a frying pan with boiling lard. If the sheet remained on the pan in lard, then the accused was innocent, but if he jumped out of the pan, then the accused sold his soul to the devil and therefore was able to inflict the evil attributed to him - then the defendant was accused of witchcraft, subjected to terrible torture and eventually burned at the stake. All the properties attributed by the Germans to the periwinkle have, of course, its amazing permanence, its amazing vitality. All the flowers of the bouquet in which the periwinkle branch is located can completely dry out, rot and fall apart, but if even a drop of water remains in the vessel in which it stands, then the periwinkle branch will remain fresh, and if it is taken out and stuck in the ground, then will immediately take root and then grow into a lush plant. That is why the Germans call it "Immergrun" (evergreen) or "Sinngrun" (unfading thought). About the origin of the last name - the following story. One day, several branches of periwinkle were placed, along with a wonderful bouquet of roses, in a vase of water. Roses bloomed, emitted a wonderful smell, caused general delight, but then faded, withered and crumbled. Then the sad remnants of these roses were removed and only periwinkle branches were left, which continued to turn green and did not want to fade at all. Time passed, the branches took root and began to grow. Noticing this, they were taken out of the water and put in a box with flowers standing on the balcony, but then completely forgot about them. Summer passed, autumn passed, winter came. The summer flowers in the box faded, and the box itself with the balcony was covered with snow. Blizzards, frosts began - everything stiffened, everything froze. The branches of the periwinkle seemed to be frozen as well, and when spring came, they wanted to throw them away along with all the other flowers that had died in the box. But what a surprise it was when they not only turned out to be completely green, but almost completely covered with lovely blue flowers. Then the people exclaimed: "They are eternal, as the thought is eternal" (Sinn). The well-known German philologist F. Zens, however, gives this word (Sinn) a different interpretation. In his opinion, it should be written with one "n", like the ancient German word Sin, meaning "forever, continuously."
Many other superstitions are also associated with the periwinkle. In the German Alps, periwinkle wreaths are made and hung over windows. It is said to protect against lightning strikes. And in the thirty-day period from the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Her Nativity, according to the Tyroleans who continue to believe in the existence of witches, the periwinkle helps to detect witches. One has only to hang a wreath of periwinkles over the door through which they enter the house. Only for this it is necessary to take not a large periwinkle (Vinca major), but a small one (V. minor), also called in the Alps the violet of the dead (Todtenveilchen), since it is customary to weave wreaths on graves from it. This periwinkle, in order to possess the indicated power, must lie for some time in the church under the pastor's prayer book. Plucked at a different time than this four-week period, it can be used by witches to cause death to livestock or to bring discord among people. Periwinkle is also called violet or the flower of death in the highlands, perhaps also because in some Swiss cities, for example in Zurich, there is a very strange fortune-telling game practiced by children. They take a flower and, slowly squeezing the cup, try to make the stamens in it look out of the corolla. While doing this, the children say: "Death, death, come out." And how many times the fortuneteller utters the word "death" before the stamens look out, so many years remains for him to live. In a word, something like guessing, counting how many times the cuckoo will crow. Many consider the periwinkle not only a symbol of permanence, but also a flower of envy, and Paolo Mantegazza explains the reason for this view with the following tale. “Blooming as the first flower in spring and heralding spring, like the fragrant violet, the periwinkle considered himself extremely offended by the fact that all people and gods pay attention to the violet, and no one pays attention to him, although in the grace of his leaves and in the beauty of flowers he is not worse at all. violets, and if the only thing he lacks in comparison with her is her lovely smell.And then one day, when Flora sank to the ground in spring and, enchanted by the charming smell of violets, caressed her and offered to give her more height so that she could rise above other flowers , and not fragrant modestly in the shade of other plants, a thin, plaintive voice suddenly rang out. - Who's complaining? Flora asked. "It's me," answered the periwinkle. - What do you need, what are you crying about? - I cry that you, the mother of flowers, do not honor me with a look and forget about me, showering at the same time with so many caresses the violet and making her such flattering proposals for the flower. Flora looked at the little plant, which she did not know at all, or perhaps she had simply forgotten; since even the gods cannot remember all the creatures they created, and for them there is a crowd without patronymic and name, and asked: - What is your name? “They don’t call me anything,” replied the periwinkle, “I don’t have a name yet. - In that case, what do you want? - I would like to have some such subtle, pleasant smell as violet. Give it to me, Flora, and I will be very, very grateful to you. “Well, unfortunately I can’t give you that,” Flora replied. - This wonderful property is received by the plant at the moment when it arises at the command of the Creator, and is transferred to it along with the first kiss of that genius who is entrusted with protecting it. You were born without smell. - Well, then give me at least some special gift that would compare me with a violet, which I even somewhat resemble and a flower, but which everyone loves, but no one loves me. - Well, - the goddess answered, - you bloom longer than the violet, bloom even when the violet has long been dead. - Thank you, Flora, this is a great gift. Now, when lovers look for shady places in the gardens and no longer meet violets, then perhaps they will pay attention to me too and, plucking, pin the bouquets made from my flowers to their chests, to hearts beating with love. “Perhaps,” the goddess replied. “But one more thing I would ask you,” continued the periwinkle, “make my flowers larger than violet flowers.” - If you please, I can do this. Let your flowers be larger than violet flowers. Magnitude is the opposite of depth. External expansion is the opposite of internal content. Here, greatly irritated by the stubborn persistence of the little plant, Flora was about to withdraw; but the plant did not seem to be quite satisfied yet. - Well, what else do you need? Flora said. - You will get larger flowers than violets, you will bloom longer than her - isn't that enough for you? - No, Flora, if you are already so merciful to me, then give me another name - some name. After all, without a name, I'm still like a tramp. Instead of getting angry, Flora only smiled. - Well, - she said, - it's quite easy, - you will be called Pervinca (victorious), from the Latin verb "I conquer", since you want to defeat your more modest and beautiful neighbor at all costs. Let your name be the expression of your envious character." And from that time on, our periwinkle bears the name Pervinca or Vinca, which then passed into science. We also point out that the periwinkle played a certain role in the beliefs of the Slavic peoples, and partly also of our ancestors. So, Afanasiev, reporting in his "Views of the Slavs on Nature" about how in Slavic legends sometimes flowers and plants growing from the buried body of the murdered, tell about crimes committed, cites as an example the Carpathian carol, where the God's tree, mint and periwinkle grew from the ashes of three orphans killed and burned by the evil stepmother because they did not guard the golden duckweed on hemp. The dead children say about this stepmother in the carol: "She will burn (burnt) us on a dry popelets (fine ash). She sowed us (sowed) in the zagorodoytsi (in the garden). She will give birth to (grow up) a triple zillya (plant). The first (first) zileiko - bizhdererevochok (God's tree), Other zileiko - cool mint, Trete zileiko - green periwinkle. Something similar is also sung in the Ukrainian song given in Mordovtsev's collection: "Ivana! I will cut (chopped) you like cabbage, I will sow in three gardens, and three little fields will be born: periwinkle, lovage and cornflower." Finally, the periwinkle played, and still plays a significant role in Ukrainian wedding ceremonies - in the baking of the wedding loaf. This curious pastry, according to Markevich, is made by the groom's relatives the day before the wedding in his house. The loaf is baked from two types of flour: wheat and rye. At the same time, only the pie itself is made from the first, and its bottom, lower crust is made from rye. Having kneaded the wheat dough, the loaves begin to sing: "Sweet, God, from paradise // To our loaf, // Shchob was visible (seen) // Krayats (cut) fractionally (smaller) ..." While singing, they mold cones and birds from wheat dough. The birds are attached to the pie in pairs with the refrain: "Give, God, that our children (children) in pairs of bula (were paired)". Then, when the time comes to put the loaf in the oven, the loaf women go to invite some man to help them, who is given the name "curly-haired", and order him to sweep the oven and put the loaf in it. The curly-haired one fulfills their order, and then shouts: "Junks (women), go to dizhi (to the bowl)!" Then the women take the dizha in which the loaf was kneaded, begin to wear it all over the hut, raise it above their heads and hit it three times on the swine, singing along with the curly-haired man: "Oh, pich (oven), pich on stovpahs (pillars), Yes, they carry dizhu on their hands, Our oven, our oven, Bake (skeke) loaf Greche for us." Then everyone shouts: “Yes, kiss, yes, have mercy,” and the loaf girls begin to hug and kiss the curly-haired one. Meanwhile, the steward (the mother of the groom) brings a snack and vodka, sits at the table and treats while the loaf is baking. When it is baked, everyone, having risen from the table and prayed to God, takes it out of the oven, wraps it in a long towel and puts it on the table. At this time, the bride arrives with her bridesmaids and begins to wiltz. Wiltze to twist means to curl a tree - a custom in which our periwinkle also plays a role. The groom cuts down a young pine or cherry and invites a comrade or relative to help him, who receives the name "boyar". The boyar brings this tree into the hut and, calling it a fork, sticks it into the loaf. Then the bride, having asked for a blessing, sits down with her friends at the table and begins to twist garlands and bunches of periwinkle with them and decorate the tree with them. Twisting garlands, girlfriends sing: "Blessed, God, // Blessed, God, // We are called for a fork, // This house is merry; // Oh, we howled for a whirl, // Yes, we are not ardor of honey, // Yes, all those pivo // Greener (wine )". If there is no periwinkle, then they weave garlands from viburnum, and sometimes even from different colored pieces of paper; but periwinkle is preferred to everything as a symbol of lasting, eternal ... During the weaving of garlands, the young woman brings them honey to strengthen the strength of her friends, and if there is no honey, then a glass of vodka. Having twisted the wiltz in the groom's house, everyone goes to twist the same wiltz in the bride's house. On the day of the wedding, a loaf with a decorated fork is placed on the front table and cut into as many pieces as there are present, so that each of the guests will certainly get a piece. That is why in the song, when kneading the dough, the loaf is sung: "Help, God, cut the loaf into smaller pieces." Author: Zolotnitsky N.
Periwinkle. Application in cosmetology
Residents of rural areas in Ukraine in the old days washed themselves with steam from flowers and periwinkle grass. The skin after such washings became soft, supple and velvety matte. In Podolia, grass and periwinkle flowers are still used in the countryside. Author: Reva M.L.
Periwinkle, Vinca. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology
Ethnoscience:
Cosmetology:
Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!
Periwinkle, Vinca. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing
Periwinkle, Vinca, belongs to the Apocynaceae family and is a shrub plant with ornamental flowers. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing periwinkle: Cultivation:
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