Effect:
blood purifying, anti-inflammatory, purifying, laxative, diuretic, antipyretic, soothing, stone-excreting, pectoral, calming
Areas of application:
for blood purification, sore throats, jaundice, edema, acute urinary tract infections
Parts of the plant used:
Marrow, rootstock
Collection time:
May to October
Can be found:
On the banks of water, on wet meadows, moor edges, on roadsides and forest clearings.
Ingredients:
?
Other:
The common rush is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches heights of (10 to) 30 to 120 centimeters. It often forms large clumps. The stems grow rigidly upright. They are round and smooth, rarely slightly striped. Stems and leaves are grass green and filled with a non-chambered pith. The stems have only one leaf that protrudes above the inflorescence. The basal leaf sheaths are reddish brown to blackish brown, not shiny and without blades. The flowering period of the rush extends from June to August. The inflorescence is an apparently lateral spiral. This is loosely spread out or, more rarely, capitate and has many flowers. The three outer of the six tepals, which are between 1.5 and 2.5 millimeters long, are slightly longer than the inner ones. They are greenish with a broad skin edge, egg-shaped and pointed and always shorter than the fruit. The individual flowers usually have only three stamens, more rarely six. The anthers are about as long as the filaments. The three stigmas are upright. The shiny brown capsule fruit is obovate to almost spherical, with a blunt triangular tip, slightly widened at the top and sunken at the tip. The style sits in this depression. The capsule is usually shorter than the perianth. The seeds are about 0.5 millimeters long, obliquely narrowly ovoid, light reddish brown and have a net-like surface. (Wikipedia)
🛑 Possibly poisonous to mammals.
The continuous pith from the inside of the rush was formerly separated from the stems and woven into a lamp wick. It can easily be pushed out of the stem with a fingernail.
The rush was formerly used primarily as a weaving material for mats, baskets and fish traps.