HERB - Heartsease and Rosemary

[Jenne Heise]

On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, NIKI ARMANASCO wrote:
> Heartsease:
> 
> I was recently gifted 4 heartsease plants, 3 with yellow and pale purple flowers and one with deep purple flowers.  
> 
> Does anyone have any information about this plant?  I have heard that you can eat the flowers and that the rest of the plant can be used for "medicinal uses" but I havent found any specific information about it.
> 

Heartsease is another name for viola tricolor, along with johnny-jump-up,
wild pansy, herb trinity, and love-in-idleness (Outside of Shakespeare,
I've never heard the last name used, but I love it anyway).

Violas are the less hybridized form of pansies, so yes, their flowers are
edible. (My mom does a great cake involving strawberries, a split angel
food cake and whipped cream, and she plasters johnny-jump-ups on the
whipped cream frosting with a little egg white. *mmm*)

I've been under the impression that when a period source refers to pansies
they mean Johnny-jump-ups/heartsease. Encyclopedia Britannica agrees with
me-- it says viola tricolor is a weed of European grainfields...

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
 "in verbis et in herbis, et in lapidibus sunt virtutes"
(In words, and in plants, and in stones, there is power.)

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