Wikimedia Commons
Asteraceae
Arnica
Arnica montana
Healing, mountain magic, recovery.
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Genus
- Arnica
- Native to
- European mountains
- Bloom season
- Summer
- Type
- Perennial
- Height
- 20–60 cm (8–24 in)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil
- Acidic, lean, well-drained
- Water
- Low to moderate
- Hardiness
- 5–9
- Lifespan
- Long-lived perennial
Did you know
- Arnica is the world's most famous bruise herb—a staple of European mountain medicine cabinets for at least 500 years and now found in nearly every sports cream from Munich to Manchester.
- Goethe credited arnica tea with saving his life during a serious heart illness in his 70s, and the German poet immortalized the plant in his late writings.
- The flowers bloom only on alpine meadows above 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) in Europe—wild collection has made it endangered, and Spain has banned harvesting.
- Arnica is poisonous if taken internally in any meaningful dose—it must be used externally only, which is why homeopathic arnica pills are diluted to almost nothing.
- The bright golden flowers are actually one of the latest-evolving members of the daisy family, found nowhere outside cool mountain pastures and acidic heaths.
Color meanings
0
healing
1
courage
2
mountain magic