Common selfheal
Prepared by Jennifer L. D’Appollonio, Assistant Scientist, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. Updated February 2018.
Scientific name: Prunella vulgaris L.
Common name(s): common selfheal, heal-all, heart-of-the-earth, woundwort, wound root
Link(s): USDA PLANTS Profile , NPIN Profile, Go Botany
Images: (to see enlargements [PC]: click on image, then right click and choose “view image”)
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- late flower, late July
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- hairy flower bracts
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- square stem
Description:
-perennial
-generally flowers June-August in ME
-simple opposite leaves
-two subspecies in New England; see information from Flora Novae Angliae at bottom of Go Botany webpage
Habitat:
-disturbed areas
-meadows and fields
-river shores
Natural history:
-used in traditional medicine around the world
- The Algonquin used it to reduce fevers
Source(s):
Haines, A., Farnsworth, E., Morrison, G., & New England Wild Flower Society. (2011). New England Wildflower Society’s Flora Novae Angliae: A manual for the identification of native and naturalized higher vascular plants of New England. Framingham, MA: New England Wild Flower Society. p. 646.
Hansen, R.W., S.B. Hansen and E.A. Osgood. 1991. Reproductive phenologies of selected flowering plants in eastern Maine forests. ME Agric. Exp. Station Tech. Bull. 143. 17 pp.
Heinrich, B. 1976. Flowering phenologies: Bog, woodland, and disturbed habitats. Ecology. 57(5):890-899.
Go Botany. “Prunella Vulgaris L.” Prunella Vulgaris (Common Selfheal, Heal-All): Go Botany, 2020, gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/prunella/vulgaris/.