What makes edelweiss so special? These traits set it apart

Morphological characteristics of edelweiss

Leontopodium is a perennial herbaceous plant, with plants 15-45 cm tall. The underground stem is thick and sturdy, wrapped in short leaf sheaths, with numerous clustered flowering stems and root suckers of the same form as the flowering stems, and no rosette-shaped leaf clusters. The flowering stems are upright and relatively slender, covered with grayish-white long soft hairs or white nearly silky hairs, unbranched or sometimes with corymb-like or nearly racemose inflorescence branches in the upper part, with denser leaves in the lower part and sparser leaves in the upper part, with internodes 5-20 mm long, sometimes reaching 10 cm in the upper part. The leaves are upright, linear or linear-lanceolate, 2-4.5 cm long and 0.2-0.5 cm wide, sheathless, sessile, grayish-green on the upper surface and covered with soft hairs, while the lower surface is covered with white or grayish-white dense woolly hairs or sometimes silky hairs. The bracts are few, slightly shorter than the upper leaves, oblong or linear, with white or grayish-white thick downy hairs on both surfaces or the lower surface, more or less spreading into a bract cluster in male plants, and more or less upright in female plants, not arranged into an obvious bract cluster. The capitulum is large, 7-10 mm in diameter in female plants, 3-7 densely clustered, rarely 1 or more, often with longer peduncles arranged in a corymb in female plants; the involucre is hemispherical, 4-6 mm long, covered with white woolly hairs; the involucral bracts are about 4 layers, often narrowly pointed, slightly protruding above the hairs; the florets are dioecious, rarely monoecious; the male corolla is about 3.5 mm long, narrowly funnel-shaped, with small lobes; the female corolla is filiform, growing after flowering, 4.5-5 mm long; the pappus is white, about 4 mm long; the male pappus has serrations or hair-like teeth; the female pappus has minute teeth; the fertile ovary is hairless and has papillae. The achene is oblong, yellow-brown, about 1 mm long, with papillae or dense coarse hairs. The flowering and fruiting period is July-October.

The functional value of edelweiss

Ornamental value. Leontopodium is a precious flower. It has the characteristic of both flowers and leaves being beautiful, with a small and exquisite plant shape, brilliant silver-gray leaves, and white inflorescences like snow, simple and elegant. At the same time, it has the advantages of drought tolerance and barren tolerance, and it is also a perennial herbaceous plant, so it is especially suitable for rock garden planting or potted ornamental display.

Medicinal value. Leontopodium is famous for its unique medicinal value. It is cold in nature and slightly bitter in taste. It has the effects of clearing heat and cooling blood, tonifying the kidneys and promoting diuresis, and is mainly used for acute and chronic nephritis and hematuria, and is effective in eliminating proteinuria and hematuria. A folk single prescription is used to treat nephritis edema, with relatively significant results.

Beauty effects. Edelweiss is now also increasingly used in the beauty field. Edelweiss is cold in nature, and its essence contains rich minerals. It can clear heat and cool blood, and has soothing, calming, whitening, and nourishing protective effects on the skin. It is extremely effective in resisting skin aging and is a natural beauty treasure of local Swiss women. In addition, with research and extraction of edelweiss ingredients in various countries, researchers have found that edelweiss also has strong detoxifying and acne-clearing effects on the skin.

Local production areas and varieties of edelweiss

Edelweiss is native to the high-altitude regions of Europe. It is one of the famous alpine flowers and is hailed as the signature flower of the Alps. There are about 40 species of edelweiss, distributed in the Alps region of Asia and Europe. This flower usually grows at altitudes above 1700 m in the Alps. Because it only grows on very rare rocky ground, it is extremely scarce.

In Yuxian County, Hebei Province, China, known as the "Sky Grassland," this grass is called "huorongcao" locally. Because this grass has a special smell, when it is used to feed livestock, the livestock dislike it and refuse to eat it. Before people knew it was the precious edelweiss, most tourists who came to the "Sky Grassland" would not pick this flower either, because its appearance is not at all showy or eye-catching, and it has no fragrance. After the local government learned that this flower is edelweiss, it took protection measures here, banned grazing, and the yurts originally set up on this grassland were also withdrawn. Also, after the discovery of edelweiss, the number of people traveling to the "Sky Grassland" increased significantly. With the fame brought by edelweiss, Yuxian County gained another name besides "Home of Paper Cutting" - "Home of Edelweiss."