Wikimedia Commons
Lamiaceae
Self-Heal
Prunella vulgaris
Healing, resilience, common grace.
- Family
- Lamiaceae
- Genus
- Prunella
- Native to
- Northern Hemisphere (circumboreal)
- Bloom season
- Spring, Summer, Fall
- Type
- Perennial
- Height
- 10–30 cm (4–12 in)
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Soil
- Average, moist
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 3–9
- Lifespan
- Long-lived perennial
Did you know
- Self-heal is one of the most universal medicinal plants on Earth—it grows wild in lawns and meadows across all of Europe, Asia, and North America, and traditional healers on every continent have used it for the same purpose: wound healing.
- The plant was so trusted that it earned the names 'all-heal,' 'heart-of-the-earth,' and 'carpenter's herb' (the last because it was applied to cuts from carpentry tools).
- Modern research has identified self-heal as containing rosmarinic acid, ursolic acid, and prunellin—all with confirmed antioxidant, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties.
- The square purple flower spikes look exactly like miniature cathedral towers—each tier of two-lipped purple flowers blooms upward in succession over many weeks.
- In China, self-heal is called 'xia ku cao' (summer dry grass) and is one of the most widely prescribed traditional Chinese medicine herbs for treating fevers and inflammation.
Color meanings
0
healing
1
resilience
2
common grace