Cow Soapwort

Mountainous southern Sinai (St.Katherine).

Mediterranean region, Asia, naturalized elsewhere.

Annual.

If the genus Vaccaria is treated as monotypic, V. hispanica then includes four subspecies, and our material is subsp. hispanica. Vaccaria hispanica still occasionally is included in Saponaria (e.g., F. Swink and G. S. Wilhelm 1994). Once a common weed of grain fields (like Agrostemma githago), it is now increasingly rare or has been extirpated in many localities; the distribution stated above may be the historical maximum, rather than current, North American distribution. The saponin-containing seeds of this species are poisonous upon ingestion.

The seeds are used medicinally.

Plants glabrous, glaucous. Stems 20-100 cm. Leaf blades 2-10 cm, base cuneate to cordate. Cymes open, 16-50(-100)-flowered. Pedicels (5-)10-30(-55) mm. Flowers: calyx 9-17 mm, with 5 prominent, usually green, winged angles or ridges, each ridge with strong, cordlike marginal vein; petals with claw 8-14 mm, blade 3-8 mm. Capsules included in calyx tube. Seeds 2-2.5 mm wide. 2n = 30.

Plants 30--70 cm tall. Stems gray-green, apically branched, glabrous. Leaves 3--9 × 1.5--4 cm, apex acute. Bracts lanceolate, midvein green. Calyx green, 1--1.5 cm × 5--10 mm, 5-angled, submembranous between angles; calyx teeth triangular, margin scarious; globose in fruit. Petals 1.4--1.7 cm × 2--3 mm; claw greenish, narrowly cuneate; limb pink, emarginate, sometimes erose. Stamens included. Styles slightly exserted. Capsule 8--10 mm. Seeds red-brown to black, ca. 2 mm, granulate. Fl. Apr--Jul, fr. May--Aug. 2n = 30*.

introduced; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Eurasia; widely naturalized elsewhere.

Flowering spring-summer.

Fields, waste places; 0-2400m.

Wheat fields. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [native to Asia and Europe].

Saponaria hispanica Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Saponaria no. 4 (in errata). 1768; S. vaccaria Linnaeus; Vaccaria pyramidata Medikus; V. segetalis (Necker) Garcke ex Ascherson; V. vaccaria (Linnaeus) Britton; V. vulgaris Host

Saponaria hispanica Miller, Gard. Dict., ed. 8, Saponaria no. 4 [in errat.]. 1768; S. segetalis Necker; S. vaccaria Linnaeus; Vaccaria pyramidata Medicus; V. segetalis (Necker) Garcke.

Vaccaria is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae containing the single species Vaccaria hispanica. It is known by several common names including cowherb, cowcockle, cow basil, cow soapwort, and prairie carnation. Its subspecies were previously treated as separate species.

It is an annual herb with blue-gray, waxy herbage and pale pink flowers.

It is native to Eurasia but can be found in many other regions as an introduced species and a common weed.

The seeds of Vaccaria are used in Chinese medicine. This medicinal ingredient is known as Wang Bu Liu Xing. It is supposed to promote diuresis and milk secretion, activate blood circulation and relieve swelling.