''Sanguisorba'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

native to the temperate regions of the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

. The common name is burnet.

Description

The plants are

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

s or small shrubs. The stems grow to 50–200 cm tall and have a cluster of basal leaves, with further leaves arranged alternately up the stem. The leaves are pinnate, 5–30 cm long, with 7-25 leaflets, the leaflets with a serrated margin. Young leaves grow from the crown in the center of the plant. The flowers are small, produced in dense clusters 5–20 mm long; each flower has four very small petals, white to red in colour.

Species

The following species are accepted: *'' Sanguisorba albanica'' András. & Jáv. *'' Sanguisorba albiflora'' (Makino) Makino *'' Sanguisorba alpina'' Bunge *'' Sanguisorba ancistroides'' (Desf.) Ces. *'' Sanguisorba annua'' (Nutt. ex Hook.) Torr. & A.Gray – annual burnet, prairie burnet, western burnet *'' Sanguisorba applanata'' T.T.Yu & C.L.Li *'' Sanguisorba armena'' Boiss. *'' Sanguisorba azovtsevii'' Krasnob. & Pshenich. *'' Sanguisorba canadensis'' L. – Canadian burnet, white burnet *'' Sanguisorba cretica'' Hayek *'' Sanguisorba diandra'' (Hook.f.) Nordborg *'' Sanguisorba dodecandra'' Moretti – Italian burnet *'' Sanguisorba durui'' Yild. *'' Sanguisorba filiformis'' (Hook.f.) Hand.-Mazz. *'' Sanguisorba hakusanensis'' Makino *'' Sanguisorba hybrida'' (L.) Font Quer *'' Sanguisorba indica'' (Gardner) Tirveng. *'' Sanguisorba japonensis'' (Makino) Kudô *'' Sanguisorba × kishinamii'' Honda *'' Sanguisorba lateriflora'' (Coss.) A.Braun & C.D.Bouché *'' Sanguisorba longifolia'' Bertol. *'' Sanguisorba magnifica'' I.Schischk. & Kom. *'' Sanguisorba mauritanica'' Desf. *'' Sanguisorba megacarpa'' (Lowe) Muñoz Garm. & C.Navarro *'' Sanguisorba menendezii'' (Svent.) Nordborg – Canary Islands burnet *''

Sanguisorba minor ''Sanguisorba minor'', the salad burnet, garden burnet, small burnet, burnet (also used for ''Sanguisorba'' generally), :wiktionary:pimprenelle, pimpernelle, Toper's plant, and burnet-bloodwort, is an edible perennial plant, perennial herbaceou ...

'' Scop. – salad burnet, garden burnet, little burnet *'' Sanguisorba obtusa'' Maxim. – Japanese burnet *'' Sanguisorba occidentalis'' Nutt. *'' Sanguisorba officinalis'' L. – great burnet, burnet bloodwort *'' Sanguisorba × poroshirensis'' S.Watan. *'' Sanguisorba × pseudo-officinalis'' Naruh. *'' Sanguisorba riparia'' Juz. *'' Sanguisorba rupicola'' (Boiss. & Reut.) A.Braun & C.D.Bouché *'' Sanguisorba sirnakia'' Yild. *'' Sanguisorba stipulata'' Raf. *'' Sanguisorba × takahashihideoi'' Naruh. *'' Sanguisorba tenuifolia'' Fisch. ex Link

Ecology

'' is a food plant for the larvae of the

grizzled skipper ''Pyrgus'' is a genus in the skippers butterfly family, Hesperiidae, known as the grizzled skippers. The name "checkered" or "chequered skipper" may also be applied to some species, but also refers to species in the genera '' Burnsius'' and '' C ...

(''Pyrgus malvae'') and the

mouse moth The mouse moth (''Amphipyra tragopoginis'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a widespread species with a Holarctic distribution. Distribution Europe (except the extreme north, and not occurring in the south of Spain, Sicily, or the Balka ...

(''Amphipyra tragopoginis'').

Cultivation and uses

Burnets are cultivated as garden plants. Many

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s have been bred, especially from '' S. officinalis''. '' S. canadensis'' is grown for its white flowers on stems that well exceed a meter tall. The plants hybridize easily, producing new mixes.Sutton, J
''Sanguisorba'' in Cultivation.
''The Plantsman''. Royal Horticultural Society. June, 2007. 78-83. '' S. obtusa'' is valued for its foliage of pink-edged, gray-green leaves.Bourne, V
How to grow: ''Sanguisorba''.
''The Daily Telegraph'' September 21, 2002. ''Sanguisorba officinalis'' is used in traditional Chinese medicinal to treat gastrointestinal conditions and bleeding. ''Sanguisorba minor'', salad burnet, has similarly been used medicinally in Europe to control bleeding. The leaves have a cucumber flavour and can be eaten in salads, or used fresh or dried and made into a tea.

Etymology

The Latin genus name ''Sanguisorba'' means ‘blood stauncher’. ‘Sanguis’ is a cognate with ‘sanguine’, meaning 'blood'. ‘Sorbeo’ means 'to staunch’. The plant is known to have

styptic An antihemorrhagic () agent is a substance that promotes hemostasis (a process which stops bleeding). It may also be known as a hemostatic (also spelled haemostatic) agent. Antihemorrhagic agents used in medicine have various mechanisms of action: ...

properties.

References

{{Authority control Rosaceae genera