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Penthorum sedoides

Common name:	Virginian Stonecrop	Family:	Saxifragaceae
Author:	L.	Botanical references:	1, 43, 235
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	N. America - New Brunswick to Florida, west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas.
Habitat:	Low wet ground[43]. Ditches and swamps[235].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	1	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	2

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Ditch Stonecrop [P], Ditch-stonecrop [B], Muraille De Virginie [E], Stonecrop,Virginia [E], Virginian Stonecrop [H,E], Virginisches Mauerkraut [E],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Rosales. Saxifrage family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	France; Germany; Us

Physical Characteristics

Perennial growing to 1m. . It is in flower from July to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs). We rate it 1/5 for edibility and 2/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires wet soil and can grow in water.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Pond, Bog Garden.

Edible Uses

Leaves.

Leaves - cooked[257]. Used as a potherb[257].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Astringent; Demulcent; Laxative; Tonic.

A tincture of the plant is somewhat astringent, demulcent, laxative and tonic[4, 61, 222]. The plant is noted for its effectiveness in treating catarrhal problems of many kinds and has also been used successfully in treating diarrhoea, haemorrhoids and infantile cholera[4].
The seeds have been used in making cough syrups[222, 257].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Suitable for the waterside or shallow water[1].
This species is included in the family Crassulaceae by some botanists and placed in its own family by others[1].

Propagation

Seed - we have no information on this species but suggest sowing the seed in a cold frame in pots that are standing in about 3cm of water as soon as it is ripe if this is possible, otherwise in early spring. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on shallow water in the cold frame for their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.
Division in spring.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Saxifragaceae.

[CHINA] Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[43] Fernald. M. L. Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Co. 1950
A bit dated but good and concise flora of the eastern part of N. America.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[222] Foster. S. & Duke. J. A. A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants. Eastern and Central N. America. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1990 ISBN 0395467225
A concise book dealing with almost 500 species. A line drawing of each plant is included plus colour photographs of about 100 species. Very good as a field guide, it only gives brief details about the plants medicinal properties.

[235] Britton. N. L. Brown. A. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada Dover Publications. New York. 1970 ISBN 0-486-22642-5
Reprint of a 1913 Flora, but still a very useful book.

[257] Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9
Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.

Readers Comments

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Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Penthorum+sedoides
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Penthorum+sedoides

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We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.