Adonis Vernalis

Scientific description

Encrust: Angiospermatophyta (Magnoliophyta)
Class: Dicotyledonatae (Magnoliatae)
Subclass: Magnoliidae (Polycarpicae)
Order: Ranunculalae (Ranales)
Family: Ranunculaceae
Popular name: spring ruscus, sparkleweed, Easter flower, horse-weed

Description: is a herbaceous, perennial plant 10–40cm tall through a short, thickened, underground rhizome, from which grow aerial stems, some sterile and some floriferous, up to 40–45cm tall, with alternate, filiform leaves. The stem has solitary, actinomorphic flowers at the top, up to 8cm in diameter, sticky, yellow, with 5 sepals and numerous petals of 10 to 20, with several free carpels. The fruit of the ruscus is a polyaena. It flowers in early spring in sunny, dry meadows, pastures and even steep hillsides.

Propagation: seeds or pieces of rhizome.
Ecology: in our country it is widespread in the foothills and hills.
Use: it is a toxic plant, due to its glycosides (adonitoxin containing coumarin and vernadin), but at the same time medicinal, using the aerial parts, harvested when the plant is in full bloom. It also contains volatile oils, resins, choline and tannin. It is used as an infusion in hypertension, being a good cardiotonic herb, in neuro-vegetative disorders and even has diuretic properties.
Threats: It is a protected species declared a monument of nature, a honey species, toxic, decorative and medicinal.

Creative writing inspired by Adonis Vernalis

Written by Didina Cosma

Eternal Beauty

Adonis Vernalis is a flower that blooms around Easter. It is said that when Jesus was crucified, his blood dripped onto the baskets full of eggs, which turned red, and from his eyes, streams of bitter tears fell on the ground, and turned into yellow flowers with petals as bright as the sun.

Another legend says that in Greece, lived the beautiful Adonis, son of King Theias of Assyria and Smyrna, the king's daughter, who was enchanted by Aphrodite to fall in love with her father. She was turned into a myrtle tree, which Aphrodite split open, and took Adonis out of it. As soon as Aphrodite saw Adonis, she felt overwhelmed by a strong passion for him, and asked Persephone to hide him in a magic chest, in order to avoid the wrath and envy of the gods. Zeus discovered him and decided that a third of the time he would hunt in the woods, a third would be spent with Persephone and a third with Aphrodite. But Adonis, pierced with an arrow of love by the sturdy god, Cupid, cared for Aphrodite dearly: he always kept her company, offered her colourful flowers, wove her wreaths of flowers which he would crown her with, making Persephone extremely jealous. Ares, the god of war, became even angrier, when he saw the wreath of flowers on Aphrodite’s head, and so, he threw it around, stamped bitterly on the beautiful flowers and called Adonis to battle.

They fought for a whole day, and suddenly, Ares, the god, turned into a mad bull that impaled Adonis with its horns, and in the evening, defeated by the bull’s horns, he gave his last breath. On hearing of what had happened, Aphrodite, ran her heart out, took Adonis’s beautiful body and anointed it with oils, in the hope of reviving it, but to no avail. Seeing how beautiful he was, even dead, she wrapped him in her veils of fine silk and buried him in a secret glade, where no malicious and envious god could ever find him.

The next day, when she went to his grave, the goddess saw some fir-looking flowers, yellow, with bright petals. The goddess picked them with love, and wove herself a wreath, thinking about the wreaths he had made for her… and named the flowers "Adonis Vernalis," for they were like him: beautiful, bright and slender.

Didina Cosma

3D Interactive View

Authentic Specimen