Cuckoo flower

Cuckoo flower – Lychnis Flos Cuculi

The cuckoo flower is a perennial perennial. It grows up to approx. 80 cm high. The leaves are narrow-ovate to spatulate and opposite. Below the leaves the stems are usually a little sticky.

The pink-purple flowers are arranged in loose panicles. The five petals are up to 25 mm long and are divided into four slightly different sized and narrow tips. The base is pale and nail-like in a tube up to 10mm long made of intergrown sepals.

The pollination is done by butterflies and long-necked bee relatives. These are able to take up the nectar at the base of the calyx tube. White foamy drops are often visible on the stalks. In these foam heaps called “cuckoo saliva” the larvae of foam cicadas hide, which suck protected by the foam at the stem.

Occurrence Cuckoo flower

The common cuckoo flower is a typical species on humid to almost wet soils and occurs mainly in moderately nutrient-rich to nutrient-rich wet meadows such as marsh marigolds meadows, moor grassHay milk comes from cows that are fed exclusively with fresh grassland feed, hay and little grain. » More info meadows or wet smooth oats meadows.

Effect of Cuckoo flower

In the past, folk medicine attributed minor effects to the cuckoo carnation, but today it is rarely used as a medicinal plant.