Old man's beard Clematis vitalba L.

Old man's beard is a perennial of the Ranunculaceae family, a highly branched, bumpy and climbing plant with wood, 5 or more centimeters thick and up to 30 m long. The leaves are large, opposite, with long handles, with 3 or 5 ovate leaves. The plant is captured using the leaf stems. The flowers have long stems, weak aromatic, white, small, outside hairy, collected in crocodile inflorescences. The nuts are elongated, slightly flattened, reddish-brown, fibrous. Blooms from June to August.

Old man's beard meets us in the woods and the bushes in the damp terrain, along rivers and streams, usually along the fences and walls that he covers, and on the trees.

The leaves (Folia Clemantis vitalbae), the roots (Radix Clemantis vitalbae) and the flowers (Flores Clemantis vitalamae) are in fresh state.

Ordinary contains anemonine and protanoanemon, leonine, little essential oil and carotene.

It is used in medicine for appetite, and externally for the imposition of skin inflammation.

From the leaves and the flowers a special yeast is obtained for bread and cheese pressing. In fresh state, the herb is poisonous.

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