Centaurium-erythraea_2

Description:

Centaurium erythraea Rafn, syn: Centaurium umbellatum Gilib., Centaurium minus Moench, Erythraea centauriumCommon Centaury, DE: xxxSlo.: tauentroaDat.: May 15. 2007Lat.: 46.38241 Long.: 14.77701Code: Bot_187/2007_DSC7509Habitat: near sea shore, flat terrain, partly grassland; calcareous, skeletal, humid ground; full sun; exposed to direct rain; elevation 4 m (13 feet); average precipitations ~ 1.000 mm/year, average temperature 13-15 deg C, Mediterranean phytogeographical region. Place: Adriatic Sea region; Island Olib, near graveyard of the village Olib, next to the main port, Kvarner bay, Rijeka region, Croatia EC.Comment: This originally European southern-temperate plant is widely naturalized also outside its native range. It frequently grows on disturbed places and on a wide range of habitats like chalk and limestone grassland, open woodland and scrub, dry grassland, quarries, spoil-heaps and road sides. It is a well known, thousand years old medical plant and one of the most bitter herbs at all. It strengthens digestive function by increasing stomach secretions. The whole herb is appetizer, aromatic, bitter, cholagogue, diaphoretic, emetic, febrifuge, hepatic, stomachic and tonic. However, there are no scientific clinical studies made on people about it. Nevertheless, its effectiveness on (at least) digestion is evident even without them.Ref.:(1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 6.(2) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 700.(3) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 506. (4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 740.(5) www.iucnredlist.org/details/202950/0