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Phlomoides tuberosa
Also called Tuberous Jerusalem Sage
Candypink Torchwort is a hardy perennial from the mint family with enlarged tuberous roots and erect stems up to about 150 cm bearing purple-red flowers. Give it full sun and well-drained soil, and it will come back year after year.
Phlomoides tuberosa (syn. Phlomis tuberosa), the sage-leaf mullein, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, south west Asia and Europe. Enlarged, tuberous roots give rise to erect stems to 150 cm bearing purple-red flowers.
This plant is grown in full sun, but may tolerate some shade. The cultivar 'Amazone' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Phytochemical analyses of Phlomoides tuberosa leaves have found flavonoids apigenin, apigenin-7-O-glucuronide, luteolin, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, luteolin-7-О-glucuronide, orientin, isoorientin, phenylpropanoids acteoside (verbascoside), forsythoside B, decaffeoyl-acteoside, leucosceptoside A, marthynoside, neolignanes, iridoids sesamoside, 5-desoxy-sesamoside, shanzhiside methyl ester, lamalbide, 8-O-acetyl-shanzhiside, phloyoside I, chlorotuberoside, sterols, triterpenes oleanolic acid, ursolic acid. Dried leaves of plants collected in Buryatia yielded 0.02% of essential oil with a weak aroma with dominant phytol, linalool, eugenol and caryophyllene oxide. The seed has yielded 11.8% of oil, including 3.3% gadoleic acid and some fatty acids containing the unusual allene group, 25.1% laballenic acid and 2.9% phlomic acid.
The Kalmyks are said to have eaten the cooked root, calling the plant bodmon sok. Another source for Mongolia has the plant used as a folk restorative medicine against intoxication, tuberculosis, pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. Buryat lamas used some part of the plant to treat diarrhoea, eye and lung disease and as a sedative.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Phlomoides tuberosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
