Wednesday 13 February 2013

Unusual Flowers

Unusual Flowers Biography

Tansy has also been cultivated and used for its insect repellent and in the worm warding type of embalming.[2][5][6] It was packed into coffins, wrapped in funeral winding sheets, and tansy wreaths were sometimes placed on the dead.[2][5][6][10] Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard University, was buried wearing a tansy wreath in a coffin packed with tansy; when “God’s Acre” was moved in 1846 the tansy had maintained its shape and fragrance, helping to identify the president’s remains.[2][5][10] By the 19th century, tansy was used so much at New England funerals that people began to disdain it for its morbid association with death.[5][7]
During the American colonial period, meat was frequently rubbed with or packed in tansy leaves to repel insects and delay spoilage.[2][5][10] Tansy was frequently worn at that time in shoes to prevent malaria and other fevers;[5][10] it has been shown, however, that some mosquito species including Culex pipiens take nectar from tansy flowers.[13]Tansy can be used as in companion planting, and for biological pest control in organic gardens and sustainable agriculture. It is planted alongside potatoes to repel the Colorado potato beetle, with one study finding tansy reduced the beetle population by 60 to 100%.[5][14][15]
In England tansy is placed on window sills to repel flies; sprigs are placed in bed linen to drive away pests, and it has been used as an ant repellent.[16]
In the 1940s, distilled tansy oil mixed with fleabane, pennyroyal and diluted alcohol was a well known mosquito repellent; collectors were paid five cents a pound for tansy in full bloom.[5][17] Research has found that tansy extracts do indeed repel mosquitoes, but not as effectively as chemical pesticide products containing diethyltoluamide [5][18](i.e. DEET.) In 2008, researchers in Sweden investigated the use of tansy to repel ticks, showing a 64–72% repellency for each oil constituent.[19]
Unusual Flowers
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Unusual Flowers

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