Alkanet root

[Thomas Lammers]

At 06:59 PM 7/14/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Can anyone help with the identification of the herb "alkanet root"?  The
>book was published in London, and my American herb books have no mention
>of such an herb, let alone the actual scientific name

After consulting an ordinary dictionary (a surprising reliable reference
for questions such as this), I believe it is a dye plant, Alkanna tinctoria
(Boraginaceae), native to the Mediterranean and points east.  Anchusa
officinalis and A. sempervirens may also pass under this name (as "European
a." and "evergreen a." respectively).


Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-7085
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
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"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
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