Dulavrat Otu | Burdock

Mavi Boncuk | 

Dulavrat Otu: Burdock[1] also known as Uluavratotu, Pıtrak, Dulkarıgömleği, Hanımyaması. 

The prickly heads of burdock seeds, which can be particularly annoying to remove from clothing and dog fur[2], led to the symbolic meaning of burdock's pink and purple flowers: "Touch me not."

Arctium is a genus of biennial plants commonly known as burdock, family Asteraceae. Native to the Old World, several species have been widely introduced worldwide. Arctium tomentosum, commonly known as the downy burdock or woolly burdock, is a species of burdock that is native to Eurasia from Spain to Xinjiang Province in western China. It is also widely naturalized in parts of North America.

The species was described by Philip Miller in 1768. The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable. While generally out of favour in modern European cuisine, it remains popular in Asia. Arctium lappa is called (ごぼう), pronounced "gobō" in Japanese or (牛蒡), pronounced "niúbàng" in Chinese. In Korea burdock root is called "u-eong" (우엉) and sold as "tong u-eong" (통우엉), or "whole burdock". Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about one metre long and two centimetres across. Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned or shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes. 

Dandelion and burdock is today a soft drink that has long been popular in the United Kingdom, which has its origins in hedgerow mead commonly drunk in the mediæval period.[10] Burdock is believed to be a galactagogue, a substance that increases lactation, but it is sometimes recommended to be avoided during pregnancy based on animal studies that show components of burdock to cause uterus stimulation.

In Europe, burdock root was used as a bittering agent in beer before the widespread adoption of hops for this purpose.

Arctium tomentosum is a biennial herbaceous plant. It can be distinguished from related species because the underside of the leaves is covered with white woolly hairs. 

[1] Burdock is one plant that has the distinction of being used over a long period of time, and by many different cultures, obtaining along the way many different names. Names by which Burdock has been known by and/or associated with are; Bardana - a name used by the Native Americans; Beggar’s Buttons; Burr; Clot bur; Cockle Buttons; Common Burdock; Edible Burdock; Fox Clote; Great Bur; Great Burdock; Gobo - in Japan; Happy Major; Lappa; Love Leaves; Personata; Philanthropium(Grieve, 143); Niu Bang Zi - in China; and Thorny Bur. 

The plant gets its name of ‘Dock’ from its large leaves; the ‘Bur’ is supposed to be a contraction of the French bourre, from the Latin burra, a lock of wool, such is often found entangled with it when sheep have passed by the growing plants. An old English name for the Burdock was ‘Herrif,’ ‘Aireve,’ or ‘Airup,’ from the Anglo-Saxon hoeg, a hedge, and reafe, a robber - or from the Anglo-Saxon verb reafian, to seize. Culpepper gives as popular names in his time: Personata, Happy Major, and Clot-bur.”(Grieve, 144) Source 

[2] For the curious: After taking his dog for a walk one day in the early 1940s, George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, became curious about the seeds of the burdock plant that had attached themselves to his clothes and to the dog's fur. Under a microscope, he looked closely at the hook system that the seeds use to hitchhike on passing animals aiding seed dispersal, and he realized that the same approach could be used to join other things together. The result of his studies was Velcro.