- External characteristics of the leaves
- Harvest the leaves - when and how?
- Ideas for using the leaves
With its golden-yellow flowers, it shines clearly from afar. But the leaves are interesting too. Once you catch a glimpse of it, you can easily recognize St. John's wort!
The leaves of St. John's wort also have a healing effect
External characteristics of the leaves
St. John's wort is easy to recognize by its leaves. The individual leaves arrange themselves in an opposite arrangement around the stem or stems. They are rather small with a size between 1 and 3 (rarely up to 4 cm).
The sheets are structured and designed as follows:
- oval to ovate
- rounded at the end
- rounded to wedge-shaped at the base
- obtain smooth
- slim
- glabrous
- entire
- almost sessile on the stems
- colored medium green
Take a closer look - points become visible
At first glance, the leaves appear inconspicuous… But on closer inspection, something becomes clear: the leaves have black dots on the one hand and translucent dots on the other. You see this especially when you pick a leaf and hold it up to the sunlight.
On the trail of the points
The translucent dots that appear on the leaf blade are gaps in the tissue of the leaves. They arise because of the black dots. But what are the black dots? The black dots are mainly distributed on the edge of the leaves. They are oil glands or oil reservoirs. They contain the essential oils of St. John's wort.
Harvest the leaves - when and how?
Not only the flowers of St. John's wort are collected for medicinal purposes. You can also harvest the leaves! The best time is before and during flowering. It is best to pick the stems whole and dry them at home in a dark place.
Ideas for using the leaves
You can do a lot with the leaves. They can be used to make tinctures, oils and tea, for example. For the tincture you need 45% alcohol. For an oil, a neutral-tasting oil such as rapeseed oil or sunflower oil should be used as a base.
tips
You can also try the leaves straight from the plant. However, they are very bitter and therefore rather unpalatable to the majority of people.