CROATIAN FLORA 2006 - BUCKBEAN OR BOGBEAN

Buckbean or bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata L.) Family Menyanthaceae English buckbean, bogbean German Sumf-Bitterklee, Fieberklee French trefle-d’eau Italian trifoglio fibrino The buckbean, also called marsh trefoil, is an aquatic or marsh perennial plant with creeping stems overgrown with scaly sheaths of the leaves which turn into a raised leafstalk (batvo) 50 cm high. The leaves are basal, alternate and trifoliate, on long stalks wider down at the base. The individual leaflets of the leaf are 10 cm long and 5 cm wide, reversely oblong in shape, rounded or pointed. The flowers are regular and hermaphrodite (they have both male and female organs), 10 to 20 in a vertical bloom cluster on top of a stalk. The calyx has 5 sepals that are free in the upper part, and the corolla has five white or pink petals. The petals have grown into a tube with their lower part, while the free lobes are bent backwards, 5 mm long and inwardly covered with fleshy hairs. Five stamens with purple anthers are adhering to the corolla tube. The pistil is made up of two ovules, has a thin style and a double-tattered snout that protrudes from the corolla. The fruit is a round pouch with numerous small, shiny seeds. The buckbean is the only species of its genus in the European flora, spread over the cold and temperate Northern Hemisphere. It blossoms in May and June, and grows on moist and marshy habitats deficient in air, in sunny patches. The medicinal properties of the buckbean were highly appreciated in the past as a remedy for scurvy, the dangerous disease which is the consequence of shortage of vitamin C. In Croatia the buckbean is on the list of endangered herbal genera (EN), but is not protected by law. It can be found in some fifteen localities only, and even there its survival is threatened, primarily on account of the draining of their habitat. Sanja Kovačić