Hey dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day that has numerous interesting experiences in your life! Today I would like to talk a little about the symbolism and mythology of a plant and hope you can expand your knowledge.
This plant also bears the name Cuckoo flower or scientifically Cardamine pratensis and it is mainly widespread in Europe. From an ecological point of view, the Cuckoo flower is extremely attractive from about spring for various types of insects and due to the content of pollen and nectar, you can find different insects such as wild bees, moths, butterflies or even cicadas and is recommended for everyone who values ecological gardens. I was even lucky enough to photograph an orange-tip butterfly in these pictures which is also associated with the goddess of the dawn from Roman mythology and this butterfly is becoming increasingly rarer. Cuckoo flower already has a long history behind it and was considered in ancient cultures a magical plant which has often been used for rituals and it was thought that it can be a link between two worlds or can help to get in touch with supernatural beings and there were even interpretations that it is a guardian of secret knowledge and you can thus reach higher knowledge. Presumably it was already used by the shamans who dried the plant and used it as an incense and this should result in contact with ghosts or the ancestors and this was generally often the focus in rituals of the shamans. In Europe there was the belief that it can help to predict things and mostly farmers used it to predict or even influence the weather and there are legends that if you should pick the plant, it would trigger a thunderstorm. The behaviour of growth was also used as an indicator of the harvest and depending on how many specimens should grow, this was considered a good or bad sign and if too many of them grew, the farmers thought that the harvest will unfortunately not be good this year. The Cuckoo flower is also an old medicinal plant that has been appreciated for its effect for centuries and can be used against chronic diseases or to strengthen the immune system in general and because of the ingredients it contains, it can stimulate the brain and cause a positive effect on the mood. As always, I would like to mention afterwards that in case of illness you always should ask your doctor or pharmacist of trust about the correct use as well as possible side effects in order to avoid complications!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about nature and mythology! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.