Growing And Using The Goat's Rue

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Goat's rue or oriental galega is a forage grass and a doctor

I have heard many kind words about the goat's rue, about its medicinal properties and beauty. And I wanted to start this plant on my site.

But I couldn't find goat's rue seeds in stores. Pen pals helped, sent seeds, but warned that they were not very similar. In order not to spoil anything, before sowing, I decided to dig in books, on the Internet. I found a lot of interesting things about this plant and I want to share my knowledge with readers.

Oriental goat's rue or oriental galega (Galega orientalis) is a perennial herb of the legume family. In nature, it grows in the forest and forest-steppe zones of the Caucasus. Occurs on forest edges, clearings, in ravines and along stream banks. The local population uses the thickets of the eastern goat's rue as hayfields and pastures.

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The aerial part is a powerful bush of 10-18 erect, lodging-resistant branched stems up to one and a half meters high, with large (up to 30 cm long) complex odd-pinnate leaves, consisting of 9-15 small oblong-pointed bright green leaves. Inflorescence is a loose upright raceme up to 30 cm long with numerous blue-violet butterfly flowers. They bloom for a very long time - from June to September. Fruits are small 2-3 seed hanging, pointed-nosed pods, which do not crack for a long time after ripening. Seeds are reniform, 2-3 mm long, olive green, ripen in August-September. They remain viable for 5-6 years.

Properties: Galegi herb contains carbohydrates, flavonoids, alkaloids (galegin, etc.), tannins and bitter substances, glycosides, vitamins, saponins, fatty oil and higher fatty acids (palmetinic and linolenic), etc. lower blood sugar. Therefore, they are used in the diet for diabetes. In addition, their anticoagulant, diuretic and lactogonic action has been scientifically established.

The use of the goat's rue

In folk medicine, water infusions from the leaves and grass of goat's rue are used as a diaphoretic, diuretic, antibacterial and antihelminthic agent, as well as for poisonous snake bites. Infusion: pour a tablespoon of dried chopped herbs with two glasses of boiling water. Strain the cooled infusion and drink in several doses per day. Research on the introduction into cultivation of this valuable fodder and medicinal plant began in the middle of the last century in many botanical gardens and experimental farms. On the basis of the recommendations developed, the eastern goat's rue began to be cultivated in large farms in many regions of Russia, including the northern ones - Leningrad, the Republic of Komi.

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Cultivation of eastern galega

Growing the goat's rue on my site, I also followed these recommendations and got a positive result. The main thing is to achieve germination. Goat's rue seeds require a lot of moisture to swell and germinate, and at the same time they have a hard shell that prevents its penetration. Therefore, before sowing, this shell must be made thinner. On an industrial scale, peeling plants are used for this, and in everyday life the seeds are either rubbed with sandpaper or ground in a bag of sand. Then the seeds are soaked for several hours and sown in early spring to a depth of 1.5-2 cm.

It is important that the seeds have good contact with the soil for further moisture replenishment, so I press them into the soil with my finger and sprinkle them with loose soil on top. Seeds germinate at a soil temperature of 5 … 12oС. Seedlings appear in 1-2 weeks. Their development requires good illumination and soil moisture. The distance between plants should not be less than 50 cm, as the goat's rue grows quickly.

By the end of summer, each plant will have one stalk 25-45 cm high and a taproot penetrating to a depth of 60-70 cm, with numerous lateral roots and several root suckers. The goat's rue is very winter-hardy and tolerates any frost under the snow. In the second year, in early spring, not one stem will grow, but several (5-8) - according to the number of buds wintering on the main root, and root suckers. Plants will start blooming in June and will reach a height of 1-1.5m over the summer. In the future, there is no hassle with the cultivation of the goat's rue, since it is very unpretentious to the soil, winter-hardy, drought-resistant, light-loving plant.

Grass has been harvested since the third year. The upper (20-30 cm) part of the plant is cut off during mass flowering, around July. Dried in a dark, ventilated place, best of all in the attic. If the grass has not dried to brittleness in a week, then it is dried in the oven at a low temperature, crushed and stored in paper bags for no more than a year.

Find 1-2 square meters for a galega on your site, and for many years (in one place it can grow up to 20 years) will delight you with its greenery and flowering from spring to late autumn, and also supply you with valuable medicinal raw materials. It will enrich the soil with nitrogen and improve its structure, as well as attract many bees to the site, as it is a good honey plant.

Unfortunately, goat's rue seeds are not available for sale in Semyon stores. Anyone who wishes to grow this valuable medicinal and ornamental plant on their site will be happy to send goat's rue seeds. They, as well as seeds of more than 200 other rare medicinal, spicy, ornamental plants, can be ordered from the catalog. It is enough to send a marked envelope - you will receive the catalog in it for free.

My address: 634024, Tomsk, st. 5th Army, 29-33, mob. t. +7 (913) 851-81-03 - Gennady Pavlovich Anisimov. The catalog can also be obtained by e-mail - send a request to E-mail: [email protected]. The catalog can be found at sem-ot-anis.narod.ru.