Wall Pennywort
Species of succulent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wall pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris), also called navelwort,[1], hipwort or penny-pies, is a fleshy, perennial, edible flowering plant in the stonecrop family Crassulaceae in the genus Umbilicus so named for its umbilicate (navel-like) leaves.
| Navelwort | |
|---|---|
| |
| Budding Umbilicus rupestris in Instow, North Devon | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Saxifragales |
| Family: | Crassulaceae |
| Genus: | Umbilicus |
| Species: | U. rupestris |
| Binomial name | |
| Umbilicus rupestris (Salisb.) Dandy | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Cotyledon umbilicus-veneris L. | |
Etymology
Description
Distribution
The plant is found in southern and western Europe, often growing on shady walls or in damp rock crevices that are sparse in other plant growth (thus, "wall" pennywort), where its succulent leaves develop in rosettes.
It is not at present under threat.[2]
Medicinal usage
Umbilicus rupestris is not the same "Pennywort" as the one used in Asian medicine, which is the unrelated Asiatic Pennywort, Centella asiatica.
Navelwort is also assumed to be the "Kidneywort" referred to by Nicholas Culpeper in The English Physician, although it may actually refer to the unrelated Anemone hepatica. Culpeper used astrology, rather than science, to classify herbs, and as such is not a reliable source. He claimed:
The juice or the distilled water being drank, is very effectual for all inflammations and unnatural heats, to cool a fainting hot stomach, a hot liver, or the bowels: the herb, juice, or distilled water thereof, outwardly applied, heals pimples, St. Anthony's fire, and other outward heats. The said juice or water helps to heal sore kidneys, torn or fretted by the stone, or exulcerated within; it also provokes urine, is available for the dropsy, and helps to break the stone. Being used as a bath, or made into an ointment, it cools the painful piles or hæmorrhoidal veins. It is no less effectual to give ease to the pains of the gout, the sciatica, and helps the kernels or knots in the neck or throat, called the king's evil: healing kibes and chilblains if they be bathed with the juice, or anointed with ointment made thereof, and some of the skin of the leaf upon them: it is also used in green wounds to stay the blood, and to heal them quickly.
Properties
See also
- Pilea peperomioides, similar looking rosid
- Hydrocotyle vulgaris, a similar looking asterid
