This month we meet again for our digital appointment at the Stavros Niarchos Park introducing Rue or Herb of Grace! It is an evergreen, perennial shrub native since antiquity to Mediterranean landscapes.
Rue belongs to the family of Rutacae and is featured as a drought tolerant herb. The blooming period of Herb of Grace lasts from June to August while its height may reach 60 to 90 cm and has a distinctive ornamental role.
In late spring, in the Stavros Niarchos Park, Rue takes the prominence from Euphorbias as seasons change, creating a rich, colorful palette due to its blueish green foliage and neon-like yellow flowers. It is attractive to two important pollinators, bees and butterflies that visit its flowers for the nectar.
It comprises a rather intense scented plant with bitter taste, used in roman ages for culinary purposes. Herb of Grace has a long history in both Greek and universal folklore beliefs for its magical and hex breaking qualities.
But this herb is also famous for pharmaceutical purposes as an antiparasitic, a blood flow stimulus and antidote to snake bites and other poisons. In Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae (3rd A.D.) there is a reference where Clearchus, tyrant of Heraclea in Pontus, used to invite dignitary and noble men for dinner who, for protection from possible food poisoning, ate Rue beforehand.
Today, according to studies, it is observed that Ruta Graveolens has excellent anticorrosion behavior due to the active components that exist in its extracts like coumarins, alkaloids etc.
