Lithospermum purpurocaerula or Purple Gromwell is a herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 perennial rhizomatous plant of the genus Lithospermum

Lithospermum

Lithospermum is a genus of plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae. Herbs or small shrubs, they are widely distributed except in Australasia...

, belonging to the family Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae, the Borage or Forget-me-not family, include a variety of shrubs, trees, and herbs, totaling about 2,000 species in 146 genera found worldwide.A number of familiar plants belong to this family....

.

Etymology

The Latin name of the species means purple and blue, referred to the changing colour of the flowers with the progress of flowering.

Description

Lithospermum purpurocaerula is a bushy plant that reaches on average 20–60 cm (7.9–23.6 ) of height, with a maximum of 70 centimetres (27.6 in). The stem is hairy, erect and unbranched. Leaves are dark green and lanceolate to narrow elliptic, with a prominent midrib on the underside. Flowers are hermaphroditic, funnel-shaped, 15–20 mm (0.590551181102362–0.78740157480315 ) long and 10–15 mm (0.393700787401575–0.590551181102362 ) of diameter, clustered in a racemose inflorescence. The blossoms are purple-reddish, then the color of the flowers turns into a deep blue. The flowering period extends from April to June. The fruits are bright white capsules, 4–5 mm (0.15748031496063–0.196850393700787 ) long, with a glossy surface. They are very hard (hence the genus synonym Lithospermum, meaning "stone seed" for the hardness of these capsules).

Distribution

This species is widespread in British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

, in the central Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 up to South Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and in Mediterranean countries from Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 to the eastern Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

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Habitat

These plants occur in dry and warm forests with sparse deciduous vegetation, in the meadows on the edge of the wood, in hedgerows and scrublands. They prefer calcareous soils rich in humus, at an altitude of 0–1800 m (0–5,905.5 ) above sea level.

Culture

It has been cultivated in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 since the Nara period

Nara period

The of the history of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794. Empress Gemmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō . Except for 5 years , when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kammu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō, in 784...

 for its root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...

, which can be used for herbal medicine and to make dyes.

One Japanese word

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 for the plant, murasaki (紫), inspired the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 "Lady Murasaki

Murasaki

Murasaki refers to both the heroine of the Genji Monogatari , and the book's author, Murasaki Shikibu. Curiously, in both cases the name is a pseudonym, and the real names are unknown....

" for the author of The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji

is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period. It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be...

 and is also the source of the general Japanese term for the color purple

Purple

Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....

, murasaki iro (紫色).

The dyes made from its root also had other names, such as shikon (紫根), but all of them were difficult to work with because of their requirement for an alum

Alum

Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...

-rich mordant

Mordant

A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics or tissue sections by forming a coordination complex with the dye which then attaches to the fabric or tissue. It may be used for dyeing fabrics, or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations. The term mordant comes from the Latin...

 and the resulting colors' extreme vulnerability to photobleaching

Photobleaching

Photobleaching is the photochemical destruction of a fluorophore. In microscopy, photobleaching may complicate the observation of fluorescent molecules, since they will eventually be destroyed by the light exposure necessary to stimulate them into fluorescing...

. During the Heian Period

Heian period

The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...

, sumptuary laws restricted murasaki-dyed clothing to the Empress and her ladies in waiting.