Mokritsa is a remarkable grass that chooses lawn-and-garden plots and other places favorable for its development and flowering.
It is possible to recognize and distinguish this plant from other weeds by its characteristic external features.
It looks unremarkable wood lice has a number of useful trace elements and is used in many cosmetic purposes, as well as for the preparation of salads, first courses and drinks.
In this article you can learn more information about this plant.
What is it and a brief botanical description
The mokritsa or starfish medium (Stellaria media) belongs to the class of dicotyledonous herbaceous plant of the carnation family. It is one year old. In the people the plant is also called canary grass, moorgrass, heart grass, mokrets or gryzhnik.
This grass received the name "wood louse" for the stem covered with fine hairs and located at the edges of the leaves of the cilia, when touched with which there is moisture on the palms.
The plant loves to be located in dark places near houses, in vegetable gardens, feels good in wet fields and forest areas, it can also be found in ditches and ravines. It prefers loose and moist soils. It blooms from May to September.
During the season one plant leaves up to 15 thousand seeds in the soil.Seeds can remain viable for up to 5 years. Reproduction occurs vegetatively by rooting the stems.
You can predict the weather on woodlice: if her flowers do not open with the rising of the sun and stand closed all day long - to be raining.
Contains a lot of carotene and ascorbic acid. In cooking, raw woodlice is added to salads, in boiled meat - in borscht and main dishes.
Due to long flowering woodlice is considered a good honey plant. As a medicinal plant, wood lice are used in traditional medicine. and homeopathy.
She is happy to be consumed by animals. In feed for pigs, chickens and pigs it is recommended to add daily this most valuable in its biological properties grass.
What does it look like?
Plant
The cranium has a creeping branching cylindrical stem 10 - 30 cm in height, due to which moisture is constantly collected from the air into the plant.
The hairs covering the stem are arranged along one row. But in different internodes rows can go alternately. The root has a core unfolded form of small length. The plant can be easily pulled out of the ground. It grows in heap enveloping rows, covering the available space.
Leaves
Small (no more than 2 cm. In width and length), ovate, pointed. Leaves located in the lower part of the plant, as a rule, focus on its petioles. Upper leaves are sedentary. In general, the leaf distribution is opposite.
Flowers
They resemble small white stars (thanks to them, the plant was called starlet). On long stalks, there are bifid petals, which are identical in size to the calyx, and are also much smaller. Most often on one flower you can find 5 stamensIn rare cases, their number can be up to 10 pieces.
Among the stamens there is 1 pestle with 3 columns. At the same time, the cup is separated.
Fruit
Woodlice resembles the appearance of a small oblong boxin which 6 shutters are located. The leaflets contain numerous seeds of a reniform or round shape, which tolerate cold well and can be preserved all winter even under snow.
A photo
Further you can get acquainted with the photos, which show a close-up of the woodlouse weed:
How to distinguish in appearance from other similar herbs?
The starfly lanceolate grass is very similar to the wood louse. which is also called forest star or hard-leaved. Its difference from wood lice is that the lanceolate star is a perennial plant with a thin creeping rhizome. The mokritsa grows once a season, leaving behind a lot of viable seeds.
These representatives of the starfish are very similar in description to flowers, but there is a characteristic difference in the leaves. The stellar lanceolate has leaves that are pointed at the ends; in the wood louse they are rounded.
Besides, in forest areas you can find plants that look like woodlice, but not one of them does not have a property inherent only in this grass - to leave wet marks on your palms and shoes. Therefore, woodlice in dry weather is difficult to confuse with other grass.
Conclusion
Due to the distinctive property of wood lice, it accumulates and stores moisture in its stem, and in dry and hot weather it is used for survival, it is considered amazing and unique in its nutritional and health properties. Many gardeners and gardeners undeservedly destroy this weed, not attaching importance to its value.
It is important to understand that wood lice can cure a person from many ailments, and for gardening purposes, help the soil retain moisture due to its close proximity to it. The small length and width of the plant does not obscure the fruit crops and does not cause visible harm to the bushes growing in the garden.
