Goose onion herbaceous plants for open ground. Goose onion yellow. Combination with other plants
Goose onion (geijia, gagea, bird's onion, yellow snowdrop) is a small herbaceous bulbous plant from the lily family, widespread throughout almost the entire territory of Eurasia and northern Africa.
Chemical composition
The medicinal properties of goose onion are due to its chemical composition.
Both the herb and the bulbs of the plant are rich in sulfur-containing garlic essential oils.
Bulbs, in addition to oils, also contain carotene, B vitamins, ascorbic acid, enzymes, a number of organic acids, phosphorus, calcium, sugars, nitrogenous compounds, saponins, glycosides, bioflavonoids.
Beneficial features
Small bulbs of goose onions are edible. Moreover, when fresh, they are a storehouse of vitamins and microelements necessary for the body, so the plant is often used as an effective remedy for beriberi in the preparation of spring salads. They can also be eaten baked or boiled. Peasants in lean years ground the bulbs into powder and mixed it with flour from cereals.
IN folk medicine the use of goose onions is advisable as a disinfectant (antiseptic), wound healing and stretching agent.
A decoction of bulbs has long been considered an effective medicine for jaundice, edema, and bronchial asthma. As an external agent, it was used to accelerate the healing of old wounds and hard-to-heal ulcers. The juice of a yellow snowdrop is treated with insect bites, an onion crushed into gruel is applied to the foci of inflammation.
The beneficial properties of goose onions are used to increase the overall tone of the body, combat chronic fatigue, and improve overall well-being.
In order for the plant to be as useful as possible, goose onions should be harvested for food purposes in the last weeks of spring or early summer, for medicinal purposes - in early spring (before flowering) or already in autumn.
Indications for use
It is worth noting that geydzhia is not included in the official list of medicinal plants. But, despite the fact that traditional medicine does not use healing properties goose onion, traditional medicine uses the plant in the treatment of diseases such as:
- Avitaminosis;
- swelling;
- Hepatitis;
- Open wounds (including difficult and long-term non-healing);
- Trophic ulcers;
- Epilepsy;
- Bronchial asthma (as an addition to the main therapy).
Another area of application of the plant is cosmetology. Goose onion has established itself as effective remedy from acne. In addition, masks based on it are used to cleanse heavily polluted, porous skin, to get rid of freckles, and improve complexion. In combination with natural honey, yellow snowdrop stimulates hair growth.
Contraindications
Despite all its value, goose onions also have contraindications. The main one is individual intolerance to the substances that make up this plant.
It should be used with caution by pregnant women, during lactation, in the treatment of children.
If any adverse events occur, you should consult a doctor.
Goose onion home remedies
The use of goose onions inside is possible in the form of a decoction, which is prepared according to this recipe: 1 tbsp. fresh bulbs pour 1/2 cup boiling water, boil for 15 minutes over low heat, leave for 1-2 hours and strain. Take the medicine 3-4 times a day for 1 tbsp.
As a wound-healing external agent, juice squeezed from fresh bulbs or pulp crushed into gruel is used.
For porous and polluted skin, a mask with goose onion and honey. To prepare it, the onions are rubbed on a fine grater, the resulting mass is mixed with a small amount of honey. The mixture is applied to the face in an even layer, avoiding the area around the eyes, left for 10 minutes, then washed off with water at room temperature.
The following recipe is great for regular oily skin care and fighting acne: mix one dessert spoon of chopped goose onions with egg white. Apply the mask on the face for 10 minutes, then rinse with water at room temperature. After the procedure, if possible, wipe the skin with an ice cube (preferably with ice from a frozen decoction of calendula or parsley).
This tool will help get rid of freckles: chop the onion bulbs into gruel and squeeze through gauze. Lubricate freckles and age spots on the face with the resulting juice twice or thrice a day. It should be remembered that after applying the product to the skin for several hours, exposure to sunlight should be avoided.
A mask for normal and dry skin is prepared from a tablespoon of goose onion grated on a fine grater, beaten egg white (one is enough) and cream. Cream is taken in such an amount that after mixing all the ingredients, a mass is obtained that resembles sour cream in consistency. The mass is applied to the face for 10 minutes and washed off warm water.
Fading skin can be taken care of with the help of this tool: rinse the bulbs, dry and bake in the oven, after cooling, knead with a fork to a mushy state. Apply the resulting mask to the previously cleaned and lubricated olive oil face, after 15 minutes, rinse with warm water, and then rinse cold water or wipe the skin with an ice cube. Rating: 4.8 - 4 votes
GOOSE BOW, or YELLOW SNOWDROP (lat. Gagea). Popular names: bird onion, yellow goose, yellow snowdrop, viper onion, yellow flower. The generic Latin name comes from the surname of the English amateur botanist T. Gage (Thomas Gage, 1781-1820). Previously, some types of goose onions were used in folk medicine, and also eaten boiled.
Once upon a time, there were a lot of goose onions in meadows and forest glades. And the old people say that flocks of wild geese always descended on these meadows and glades in the spring to rest here after a difficult road and pinch the onion shoots, which they loved very much ... That's where the full name of this early spring flower came from - goose onion. And rightly so, as soon as the first flowers of the goose onion appear, flocks of migratory geese appear high and high in the sky, flying from south to north in spring, to their homeland.
This is a small genus of small plants of the lily family; low-growing perennial bulbous herbaceous plant with six small yellow flowers and a small bulb from 8 to 15 cm tall. These are the smallest plants in the lily subfamily - from 3 to 35 cm high. The flowers are collected in a bunch on a low stem. And next to the stalk, one single long and narrow leaf rises from the ground. Tepals 13-18 mm long, lanceolate, obtuse, greenish outside, stamens half as long as the perianth. The fruit is a spherical capsule. By evening and in bad weather, the inflorescences close tightly, and since the petals are greenish on the outside, they become invisible to the eye. The fruits ripen in May-June.
Yellow flowers in early spring in April. Their yellow star-shaped flowers cover mountain meadows, gravel slopes and rock crevices in spring, are found in the steppe, sometimes on saline soil and limestone, in separate clumps in deciduous forests and on lawns in parks or, like weeds, in crops.
Goose onion grows in steppes and forests, on dry mountain slopes and in semi-deserts and among bushes. There are about 100 species in the temperate zone of Eurasia, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Siberia, Far East, Central Asia. In the forest zone, Goose Yellow (G. lutea) is most common. Many species of goose onions are eaten by animals on pastures, but they do not have a significant fodder value.
WITH therapeutic purpose bulbs are used, which are harvested in spring - before flowering and in autumn. The chemical composition is not well understood. It is known that the whole plant contains garlic essential oils, which include sulfur. Traditional medicine almost did not use goose onions.
Previously, a decoction of the bulbs was taken orally for dropsy, edema, jaundice, and bronchial asthma. Externally crushed onions were applied to improve the reparative processes of ulcers, long-term non-healing wounds, and erosions. A decoction of onions in milk is given to children in small doses for epilepsy. Crushed bulbs are used as an external wound healing agent.
The goose is interesting and how edible plant. Bulbs are edible, leaves with a peculiar garlic smell are used to make salads. Small bulbs are edible in boiled and baked form. In the old days, in lean years, the peasants collected the bulbs of this herb, dried, ground and mixed with bread.
Method of preparation and use: Cook 1 tablespoon of fresh goose onions for 5 minutes in 0.5 cups of boiling water, leave for 1-2 hours, strain. Take 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day.
Variety of goose onions
There are about 100 species in the temperate zone of Eurasia, including Russia. In the European part of Russia, there are 4 types of goose onions: yellow (G. lutea), small (G. minima), granular (G. granulosa) and ruddy (G. rubicunda). Outwardly, all these species are very similar to each other and differ mainly in the structure of the bulbs and integumentary scales on these bulbs.
- Yellow goose onion (G. lutea (L.) Ker Gawl.) is the most common species in our area. Plant up to 25 cm high; the bulb is solitary, without small bulbs, the tepals are green on the outside. The apex of the basal sheet is cap-shaped.
- Small goose onion (G. minima (L.) Ker Gawl.) - a plant up to 15 cm high with pointed tepals. It is very quickly vegetatively crushed with the help of small onions formed at the base of the bulb.
- Goose onion ruddy, or reddish (G. rubicunda Meinsh.) - a plant up to 15 cm high; bulb solitary, without small bulbs. The tepals are reddish on the outside, hence the name. At the end of flowering, small bulbs form in the inflorescence. The species is included in the Red Books of Nature of the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg.
- Goose granular onion (G. granulosa) is a rare species listed in the Red Book. Located on the eastern border of distribution, has nutritional value. A small bulbous plant, with a bulb planted in a circle under a common shell with even smaller bulbs and one lanceolate basal leaf. The stem is leafless. Umbrella inflorescence consists of 1-5 flowers. Petals 1.5 cm long, outside with green or reddish-brown stripes, the fruit is a capsule
- Goose meadow (G. pratensis) - a plant barely reaching a height of 5-20 cm, found under hedges and tall grasses in places with calcareous soil. He has the most beautiful of all goose onions yellow star-shaped flowers.
- Bulbous goose onion (G. granulosa Turcz.) - a plant up to 15 cm high with numerous small onions formed at the base of the bulb, pubescent pedicels.
- Flowering goose onion (G. peduncularis) - this onion grows naturally in the Balkans and North Africa. Its peduncles, bearing up to 7 yellow star-shaped flowers, are shorter than the leaves, the length of which reaches 6-30 cm.
- Covered goose onion (G. spathacea) - this plant often goes unnoticed, because it does not bloom in the shade, only under bright sunbeams small yellow stars form on it.
- Goose onion pubescent (G. villosa) - in the spring, among the long narrow leaves, arrow-stalks appear, bearing up to 15 small star-shaped flowers.
- Goose fibrous onion (G.fibrosa) - in spring and summer, this small bulbous plant forms erect flowers collected in umbrellas; the perianth is green on the outside and yellow on the inside.
- Goose bow Greek (G. graeca). In plants of this species, narrow leaves are 4-12 cm long. In spring, it forms inflorescences of 5 white flowers, on which purple veins are clearly visible. This species is not winter-hardy, so it is grown in a greenhouse or rock garden greenhouse. After the flowers fade, the plant is not watered.
Bright green low, up to 35 cm, grass with sunny yellow petals would hardly attract close attention if it were not for the mass of useful properties of its composition.
Chemical composition
Most often in the vastness of our latitudes you can find yellow goose onions. We will consider its chemical composition. So, plant parts contain:
- essential oils with garlic smell;
- mineral salts of some trace elements;
- carotene and fiber;
- phosphorus, sulfur and iodine;
- inulin polysaccharide.
Did you know? There is a story that when returning from wintering from the south, resting in the glades, they gladly plucked inconspicuous green growth with small yellow flowers. So the plant got its name "goose onion", or "goose house", and later people became interested in it and its properties.
What is useful
Most of all, goose onion is valued as an antiseptic, wound healing agent, and a storehouse of vitamins, but the description of its composition suggests another, no less beneficial effect on the body. For example, inulin in the composition of tubers is one of the main components in medicines for diabetics, heart disease, in the treatment of diseases of the digestive tract and nervous system.
Vitamin C- the first assistant in the fight against beriberi, anemia, against viruses and respiratory diseases. Regular use of ascorbic acid strengthens immune system organism.
Nicotinic acid, or vitamin PP, normalizes the digestive tract, cardiac activity, activates the liver, participates in the recovery processes of the body. Its presence or absence in proper quantities determines the health of the skin. 
The benefits of the plant are observed in the treatment of such painful conditions:
- avitaminosis;
- skin problems, including wounds and ulcers;
- diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
- edema (including in pregnant women);
- diabetes;
- slagging of the body;
- fragility of bone tissue;
- pressure surges;
- diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract;
- metabolic problems;
- blood viscosity;
- epilepsy.
Did you know? They help the gosling to breed in large areas. They are attracted to the seeds of the plant, and when the insects drag the seeds into the anthill, some of them get lost along the way. Subsequently, they germinate and thus fill new territories.
Procurement and storage of medicinal raw materials
In the spring, goose greens are harvested, which are used for food. It is better to collect bulbs in the fall, when they have filled with juice and absorbed a lot of nutrients. Bulbs are dug carefully, on a bayonet, so as not to accidentally damage them.
The raw materials are cleaned, but not washed, otherwise the juicy pulp will begin to rot. Thick paper is placed at the bottom of a cardboard or wooden box, and then peeled plant tubers.
Important! The box in which the raw materials of the goose will be stored must have holes for air access.
The storage room should also be well ventilated and dry. goose preserves during storage medicinal properties no more than 2 years, and then loses some of its properties. 
Traditional medicine recipes
To replenish the supply of vitamins and minerals, plants are eaten in salads.
For skin treatment use an onion ground into gruel, using it as a compress or lotion (for a small surface of the skin, 2 medium onions are enough). Both the pulp and the juice squeezed out of it are used. Bandages on the skin are usually left for a day, then changed.
For influenza and upper respiratory infections gruel is mixed with in a ratio of 1 × 1, used against microbes on the mucous membranes and from a sore throat.
To reduce swelling and asthma symptoms prepare a decoction: pour 1 tablespoon of chopped onion with 1 cup of boiling water, boil the mixture for about 5 minutes. Then let it brew and filter. The course of treatment is 2 weeks, if necessary, it is repeated. Reception rate - 1 tablespoon 4 times a day. 
For the prevention of epileptic seizures prepare a decoction in milk: a little less than 1 cup and 2-3 chopped onions are boiled for 5 minutes. The broth is separated from the gruel, cooled and taken 1 tablespoon 3 times a day. The duration of admission depends on the frequency of attacks.
Recipes for home cosmetology
Hair Growth Mask: 2 tablespoons and 4 tablespoons of goose slurry are mixed until a homogeneous consistency and rubbed into the hair roots. Keep the mask under a towel for half an hour. Wash off with shampoo.
Facial Pore Reduction Mask: onions (gruel) are mixed with 1 teaspoon
Alternative medicine is often a panacea for those who are disillusioned with the treatment of drugs produced by the pharmaceutical industry. One of its leading areas was and remains phytotherapy, that is, herbal treatment. Its main advantages, of course, are availability, no need to write a prescription and safety.
Herbs, of course, do not give the same strong effect as, for example, antibiotics, but they have a more gentle effect on the body, and also reduce the risk of addiction and the development of negative side reactions. The main principles of herbal medicine are compliance with the measure and knowledge of the individual characteristics of the organism. After all, like any treatment, phytotherapy can have limitations and contraindications. Therefore, in order not to harm and aggravate the course of the disease, before using this or that herb, it is still better to consult with your doctor.
One of the plants widely used in herbal medicine is goose onion, which is also popularly known as goose, viper onion, yellow snowdrop and bird onion. Every spring, its thin stems, crowned with bunches of bright yellow flowers, can be seen in meadows, forest clearings, and simply along roads. Old people say that as soon as small yellow flowers bloomed in early spring, flocks of wild geese descended to the glades and forest edges strewn with them to rest, gain strength after a difficult flight and nibble grass. Hence the name - goose onion.
In science, goose onions are called Gagea Lutea L., which translates as yellow gagea. The name was coined in honor of the Dutch scientist Thomas Gage, who first studied and described in detail the properties of this plant in the middle of the 17th century.
Botanical characteristic
Yellow goose onion is a low perennial of the lily family, blooming in the steppes, forests, on dry mountain slopes and in semi-deserts in early to mid-April. It is very unpretentious and is able to get along on gravelly slopes, rock crevices, on limestone and even on saline soils.
The onion is a small herbaceous plant with a height of 8 to 15 cm. Its stem is thin, and next to it a single long narrow leaf rises from the ground. Gosling flowers have six small petals of bright yellow on the inside and greenish on the outside, they are collected in small bunches on stalks. Flowers are laid since autumn in an amount of 2 to 10 pieces, the final formation and growth of shoots is completed by the end of winter. Flowering begins in early spring, but after a little more than a month, the stem and leaves die off, and only the bulb filled with a supply of nutrients remains in the ground.
The tepals are obtuse, lanceolate, greenish on the outside, and their length is from 13 to 18 mm. Goose onion propagates with bulbs. Its fruits are small boxes of spherical shape. The beginning of their ripening period falls on May and June, and ripening is completed only by the next spring.
In the evening and in bad weather, the inflorescences close tightly and become almost invisible due to the green color of the outer side of the petals.
To date, there are about a hundred varieties of goose onions. Africa is considered its homeland. It was from there that at one time it came to European countries and then spread widely across the entire width of the temperate climatic zone of the Eurasian continent.
Beneficial features
Goose onion grass, like all onions, is rich in garlic essential oils, which contain sulfur in their composition. The same essential oils are also found in plant bulbs, which are used in folk medicine to treat liver diseases, bronchial asthma, poorly healing wounds, erosions and ulcers, and also as a decongestant. A goose broth prepared in milk was given to young children to prevent epileptic seizures.
Apart from essential oils V chemical composition bulbs contain B vitamins, ascorbic acid, carotene, fiber, organic acids, enzymes, sugars, calcium, sulfur, phosphorus, nitrogen compounds, flavonoids, saponins, glycosides and other equally valuable components.
As a medicinal raw material, yellow goose onion bulbs are harvested in early spring, even before the first flowers bloom, and also in autumn. For this purpose, the bulbs are dug up, dried, and then crushed.
Thanks to its active substances, goose onion:
- Has an antimicrobial effect;
- Reduces fragility of bones;
- Prevents the development of sclerosis;
- Normalizes the course of metabolic processes in the body;
- Reduces blood sugar levels;
- Stabilizes blood pressure;
- Promotes the removal of "bad" cholesterol;
- Cleanses the body of toxic substances.
Inside, goose onions have long been taken in the form of a decoction, for the preparation of which they take a tablespoon of chopped fresh onions, pour 100 ml of boiling water and, stirring constantly, cook over low heat for five minutes. After that, the broth is allowed to brew for two hours, filtered and put in the refrigerator. It is recommended to consume it in a tablespoon three or four times a day. It should be remembered what medicine can be stored no more than 36 hours.
To prepare an antiepileptic decoction, three goose onions are boiled in 100 ml of medium-fat milk. The resulting product is cooled, strained and taken three times a day, two to three teaspoons. The duration of the course of treatment is two weeks, then take a break for a month or two and repeat the treatment.
However, yellow goose onions are used not only as medicinal plant, but also as a component of a large number of culinary recipes and as a cosmetic product.
In cooking, both onions and goose leaves are used. The leaves, which have a pronounced garlic taste and aroma, are added to spring salads, and the onions are baked in the oven or boiled. In ancient times, when there was a crop failure, goose onions were ground and added to bread dough.
In cosmetology, it is also customary to use plant bulbs. Moreover, this tool in combination with other components is suitable for both oily skin, and for normal, dry, fading, as well as for skin prone to acne, freckles and various kinds of rashes.
Women with porous, excessively polluted skin are recommended to rub the onions (1-2 pieces) on a fine grater, add a small amount of honey to the resulting mass and apply on the face, avoiding contact with the eyes. Wash off the mask after 10 minutes.
As a remedy for acne, one dessert spoon of chopped goose onions is mixed with one egg white, applied to the face for 10 minutes, then washed off with warm water.
Crushed raw materials mixed with honey help to strengthen and grow hair, squeezed juice removes freckles if they are regularly rubbed with them, and baked and softened bulbs, placed on face skin lubricated with olive oil, slow down the aging process.
Goose onion is a bulbous herbaceous honey plant belonging to the lily family. Appearance its rather modest, but the plant looks great in a rocky garden and feels great in flower arrangements. Often it is also used as a border. In nature, there are more than a hundred of its species, and most often the plant is found in Eurasia and North Africa. The goose onion blooms in early spring, which is why it is popularly called the yellow snowdrop.
The goose onion flower reaches a height of 35 cm. Its inflorescences are umbellate, and the flowers themselves are small yellow stars. The leaves of the goose onion plant are narrow and long, much longer than the inflorescence itself. Goose onions propagate with the help of children, which are formed from the main bulb. In summer, the fruits of goose onions ripen in the form of trihedral boxes with seeds. After flowering, the aerial part of the plant dies off.
The most common are such species as goose onions yellow, bulbous, small, reddish. In decorative garden landscaping, yellow goose onions are most often used. The plant is quite hardy, loves sunny places, fertile, loose soil that does not retain water.
goose onion yellow
Yellow goose onion grows in forests, oak forests, groves and dense shrubs. It has a small ovoid bulb up to 10 mm in diameter, covered with brown-gray scales. Its stem grows up to 30 cm. broad leaves longer than inflorescences. Under the inflorescence, it usually has two leaves: one growing above the inflorescence, and the second, smaller, shorter than the inflorescence. The inflorescence itself consists of 8-10 flowers pale yellow, and outside they are generally greenish. Yellow goose onion blooms in March-April.
In summer, the plant begins a dormant period. And by the beginning of autumn, the next year's shoot is fully formed at the goose onion. The tops of its leaves begin to resemble a hard point, helping the plant to break through frozen soil, snow or ice crust in early spring.
The growing season for goose yellow onions lasts only 2-3 weeks. Its yellow flowers open at 10 am and close at 5 pm. In cloudy or rainy weather, they do not open at all.
In the description of the yellow goose onion, one can find interesting periods of its reproduction. During the first period, even before flowering, there is increased reproduction and the formation of children that appear at the base of the mother bulb. These small bulbs formed do not germinate in the next, but only in the third year. In the spring of the fourth and fifth year, the bulbs continue to grow, and only in the spring of the sixth year the plant blooms and the second period of the life of the goose onion begins. Daughter bulbs can no longer form in him, and reproduction continues only with the help of seeds. Such bulbs, grown from seeds, are located for several years on the very surface of the soil and are easily washed off by rain or flood waters. 
and transported over long distances. And the babies are formed at the same depth as the mother bulbs, that is, they cannot be washed deeper and washed out by rains, but slowly settle over short distances. These two methods of propagation of the yellow goose onion contribute to the wide distribution of this species in the wild.
Yellow goose onion seeds are sown before winter. If you want to grow a plant from children, then it is best to scatter the bulbs in the area where it is already growing. lawn grass and lightly dig the bulbs into the ground. With this planting, you will get a beautiful natural carpet of starry scattering of yellow flowers of decorative goose onion on a green field of grass.
