Astrantia major (L) Great Masterwort
NOMENCLATURE
Astrantia : name used by L’Echose
major : greater
Masterwort : from magister : master of healing plants.
OTHER NAMES : pink masterwort.
BSBI Picture Link to Astrantia major
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE : densely tufted, glabrous perennial. Hs.
AROMA : sickly, foetid smell. ROOTS: Short, creeps.
STEMS : erect, branched, uppermost in a whorl of 3 or more.
HEIGHT : 50-80 cm.
UMBELS : simple.. convex, terminal hermaphrodite, few male. Lateral all
male. Pedicels of hermaphrodite flrs. 2-5mm, of male flrs 4-10mm.
LEAVES : deeply palmately lobed. Basal 6-17cm, long petiolate. 3-7 oblanceolate
coarsley serrate lobed segments. Middle segment free for 2/3 of length. Cauline
leaves <, shortly petiolate or sessile. Cotyledons contracted into a petiole.
BRACTS : bracteoles 1-2cm, lanceolate, erect, accuminate, entire or slightly toothed at apex,
white beneath, pale greenish, purple above, strongly reticulately veined, = or > flowers.
FLOWERS : white, pink. Pedicels filiform. Calyx teeth triangular, accumminate, > than
notched, inflexed petals. Ovary with flat disc at apex. Pollinated by beetles. Fl. 5-9.
FRUIT : 6-8 mm, x3 long as wide, ovoid, oblong, commisure broad, carpels dorsally
compressed. Covered with 2-dentate vesicular scales arranged in 5 vertical rows on each
mericarp. Commisure broad. Carpophore present. Vittae 1 in each groove, styles 4-5 mm,
divergent or recurved, filiform. Stigma capitate. 2n=28.
HABITAT : Meadows and wood margins.
DISTRIBUTION : intro. N.W. Britain. Herts, Worc. Established 100
years in Stokesay Castle, Shrop. C.& S. France, Germany, Spain,
White Russia. Naturalised in Denmark, Finland, elsewhere.
BSBI Distribution Map for Astrantia major (UK)
EXTERNAL LINKS FOR Astrantia major
These links to trusted websites and institutions may provide in depth or additional information regards cultivation, chemistry, edibility, images etc. for the species. Links last updated Aug 2012.
Wikipedia (UK) Plants For a Future (UK)
Bio Info (UK) APHOTOFLORA (UK)
'Online Guide To Umbelliferae Of The British Isles' Compiled By J.M.Burton 2002
