| Bergenia crassifolia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Bergenia crassifolia, like many of its congeners, was originally believed to be asaxifrage | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Saxifragales |
| Family: | Saxifragaceae |
| Genus: | Bergenia |
| Species: | B. crassifolia |
| Binomial name | |
| Bergenia crassifolia | |
| Varieties | |
Bergenia crassifolia var.crassifolia | |
| Synonyms | |
Bergenia cordifolia (Haw.) Sternb. | |
Bergenia crassifolia is a species offlowering plant of the genusBergenia in the familySaxifragaceae.Common names for the species includeheart-leaved bergenia,[1][2]heartleaf bergenia,leather bergenia,[2]winter-blooming bergenia,[3]elephant-ears,[1]elephant's ears,[2]Korean elephant-ear,[4]badan,pigsqueak,[3]Siberian tea,[2] andMongolian tea.
The species epithetcrassifolia means "thick-leaved", while the epithet in thesynonymBergenia cordifolia means "cordate (heart-shaped) leaf" (although the leaves may also be described as spoon-shaped). The cultivar 'Rosa Zeiten' has gained theRoyal Horticultural Society'sAward of Garden Merit.[5]
It grows to about 12 inches (30 cm) tall. The leaves are winter hardy in warmer climates and change colour in the range of rust brown to brown-red. Therhizome is creeping, fleshy, thick, reaching several meters in length and 3.5 cm in diameter, with numerous root lobes, highly branched, located near the soil surface, turning into a powerful vertical root. The stem is thick, leafless, glabrous, pink-red, 15-50 cm high.
Leaves are in a basal denserosette (wintering under the snow), dark green, which redden by autumn, with an almost rounded blade and a membranous sheath remaining up to two to three years. The leaf blade is broadly elliptical or almost rounded, rounded or chordate at the base, obtuse or indistinctly dentate, 3–35 cm long, 2.5–30 cm wide, on wide petioles not exceeding the length of the plate, equipped at the base with membranous vaginal stipules.
Flowers are small, regular, lacking bracts, in apical thick paniculately-corymbiforminflorescence, usually two for long reddish leaflesspeduncle length of 4 cm.Calyx is naked half dissected into five oval top rounded lobes of up to 4 mm; petalsobovate or broadly ovate, with a wide short marigold, 10-12 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, with a blunt-rounded apex and many veins, purple-red or pink. Thestamens are twice as long as the calyx, and there are ten of them.Pistil has a semi-lower ovary, deeply divided into two (three) columns with wide stigmas.
The fruit is an ellipsoidal, dry capsule with two diverging lobes opening along the abdominal suture. Seeds are numerous, oblong, smooth, glabrous, faceted, almost black, up to 2 mm long.
The plant blooms in late spring and early summer before the appearance of young leaves. The seeds ripen in mid or late summer.
It is a widely-grown garden plant;cultivars includeBergenia cordifolia 'Purpurea',Bergenia cordifolia 'Winterglut',Bergenia cordifolia 'Senior', andBergenia crassifolia 'Autumn Red'. It mainly reproduces vegetatively (by segments of rhizomes), but reproduction by seeds is not excluded. As an ornamental plant, it has been known in culture since the middle of the 18th century, it is used forlandscaping, in stone gardens, arrays of shrubs and trees. Gardeners bred several forms with flowers of various colors. The plant prefers semi-shady and shady places with moderately dry, fertile soil. Propagated by dividing the bush in the fall.
Bergenia crassifolia is used as a tea substitute in its native Siberia,Altay and Mongolia. For medicinal purposes, rhizomes are used, which are collected by hand, cleaned and washed in cold running water. Large rhizomes are cut into long pieces. After preliminary drying, they are dried in the shade or in a well-ventilated area, laid out in a layer of 5 cm on paper or fabric. Leaves are used much less often. It is used in tanning sole and Russian leather, as well as the impregnation of nets andtarpaulins. The raw materials collected high in the mountains contain more tannides than in the low mountains.
The medicinal properties of the plant have long been used in Russianfolk medicine, as well as in the medicine ofTibet andChina.Aqueous extracts of rhizome and leaves inside are used forcolitis and enterocolitis of a non-infectious nature,tuberculosis, acute and chronicpneumonia, pulmonaryhaemorrhage,influenza and some other infections,laryngitis, headaches, fevers, articularrheumatism and gastrointestinal diseases.[6][7]
The plant contains the polyphenolsarbutin,[8]kaempferol 3-lathyroside,catechin 3-O-gallate,[9]tannins and thepectinbergenan.[10]
