| Positive | grovespirit | On Apr 14, 2009, grovespirit from Unlisted, HI (Zone 11) wrote: Annual flowering herb. Grows easily in sunny areas or a well-lit windowbox. Attractive, and very useful.
Native to France, where it was historically used as a febrifuge among other medicinal uses.
Not fussy about soil type or pH, and slightly salt tolerant. Will grow in sandy coastal regions. Annual which often self-sows and returns the following year. Due to self-sowing it may be mildly invasive in some areas, but easily controlled by uprooting the plants and/or deadheading them.
A good companion plant for veggie gardens. This plant improves the health and crop yields of other plants grown near it, by attracting beneficial insects and pollinators to the garden.
Medicinally, this plant can be used as a chamomile substitute for many ailments, despite being scentless.
This plant is closely related to ragweed, so those with ragweed allergy should use caution and consult an allergist or doctor before using this.
In using it for herbal medicine I personally have found it to have most (but not all) of the same herbal-remedy benefits that scented chamomile has.
Matricaria maritima has been useful to me as an anti-inflammatory, antirheumatic, alterative, anodyne, antispasmodic, carminative, febrifuge, mild muscle relaxant, vulnerary, eye wash, topical application for eczema or dry skin, and topical anti-infective.
However, this Matricaria species does not seem to have the calming/sedative properties of other chamomiles, so I do not use it for that purpose.
Botany synonyms for this plant besides the ones listed above include Chamomilla inodora (L.) Gilib., and Tripleurospermum perforatum. |
