''Alchemilla arvensis'' (syn. ''Aphanes arvensis''), known as parsley-piert, is a sprawling, downy plant common all over the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

where It grows on arable fields and bare wastelands, particularly in dry sites. The short-stalked leaves have three segments each lobed at the tip. Flowers April–September. The tiny green flower has four sepals and no petals, the fruit is oval pointed.

Stipules In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

form a leaf-like cup, enclosing the flower. The name of parsley piert has nothing to do with parsley. It is a corruption of the French ''perce-pierre'', meaning 'stone-piercer' and was given to the plant because of its habit of growing in shallow, stony soil and emerging between stones. As in the case of

saxifrage ''Saxifraga'' is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 465 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils. The Latin word ''saxifraga'' means literally "stone-breaker", from Latin ' ("rock" or " ...

(from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

meaning 'stone-breaker') it was wrongly assumed that the plant could pierce stones; and it was thought that a medicine made of parsley piert would break up stones in the

bladder The urinary bladder, or simply bladder, is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In humans the bladder is a distensible organ that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters ...

and

kidneys The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

. Old folk-names for the plant include 'colicwort' and 'bowel-hive-grass' (hive meant

inflammation Inflammation (from la, wikt:en:inflammatio#Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants, and is a protective response involving im ...

), showing that it was also used for intestinal ailments. The 17th-century

herbalist Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...

Nicholas Culpeper Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 – 10 January 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer.Patrick Curry: "Culpeper, Nicholas (1616–1654)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) His boo ...

, recommended parsley piert for use in salads, although it would be difficult to gather sufficient quantities of such a tiny plant for a reasonable meal. Culpeper also recommends the plant to gentlemen for eating as a winter pickle in addition to the pickled

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...

to which they were accustomed. The previous genus name of ''Aphanes'' comes from a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word meaning "unseen" or "unnoticed", which precisely describes this tiny plant. Nevertheless, parsley piert is a very common and widespread weed of cultivated ground, whether acidic or not.

Description

''Alchemilla arvensis'' is 2–20 cm high, leaves fan -shaped, short-stalked, with 3 deep-toothed main lobes; leaves only 2–10 mm long. Flowers minute, less than 2 mm, in dense clusters in leraf-axils, surrounded by cups formed by leaf-stipules; 4 sepals, epicalyx, but no petals; stamens usually one. Flowers April–October.The Wild Flower Key, British Isles N.W. Europe, Francis Rose, WARNE, Published by the Penguin Group, 1991 reissue,

Habitat

On arable land, bare ground, on paths, on dry or chalky soils.

Distribution

Most of Europe, including Britain, east to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Gallery

File:Aphanes arvensis saint-fuscien 80 19052007 1.jpg File:Aphanes arvensis kz1.jpg File:Aphanes arvensis.jpeg File:Aphanes arvensis saint-fuscien 80 19052007 4.jpg File:Aphanes arvensis-ssp-lamyi carriere-saint-maximin 60 01072008 02.jpg File:Aphanes arvensis 1913.jpg File:Nsr-slika-195.png

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q19692236, from2=Q161306 arvensis Flora of Asia Flora of Europe Medicinal plants Demulcents