Love magic is as old as the world, for Love moves the universe. At all times, it was peculiar for a person to strive to find the only beloved person for himself, his soul mate, and at all times people are ready to pay the highest price for the happiness of owning him. And for this, any means are used. Until now, preserved ancient recipes for love potions and aromas, love and lapel potions, as well as various ointments and rubbing to enhance sexual energy. People today do not stop resorting to the help of psychics, magicians and sorcerers, and most often precisely because of love and family issues.
It is impossible to imagine the development of our civilization without the magical and healing power of plants. And the magical power of plants to achieve love was used most often. For a long time, girls of all peoples have adorned themselves with wreaths of wildflowers in order to become the most beautiful and most desirable. During the heyday of love, they wondered, talked and bewitched their beloved with the help of love infusions and dishes prepared with magical herbal ingredients. From time immemorial, the wedding bed was wrapped in garlands of flowers, so that their fragrance would make the night of love even more passionate. And we can safely say that while love is alive in the world, the magical power of flowers and plants will constantly accompany us.
Even without knowing about biochemistry, our ancestors carefully studied plants: how to use, when, where and in what way to collect and dry in order to achieve maximum effect. And then they fixed in the memory of the people for each plant its special properties - magical or healing, and more often - both. Moreover, they were practically not mistaken. Modern science was only able to confirm their centuries-old observations and learned on their basis to prepare many ingenious miraculous medicines from the former forest, field and mountain plants-savages. This list of plants is long, but we will focus on only one of these plants - two-leaved Lyubka.
 |
In Slavic magic, this flower, quite rare today, was considered one of the most powerful love spells. Its scientific name is two-leaved lyubka (Platanthera bifolia), in the people it is usually called a night violet, and in older times - a moth, lyubka, or even so "love me do not leave."
In the distant past, healers and sorcerers prepared a love drink of special power from the tubers of the night violet. Whoever drank it, he regained the strength of youth and the flame of the heart. That is why they gave this weed an affectionate nickname - "lyubka", the helper of love. And in general, in folk etymology, the word "lyubka" meant beloved, beloved.
 |
Lyubka is two-leaved (Platanthera bifolia) - a perennial herb from the orchid family (Orchidaceae) The root system consists of two ovoid root tubers, at the end of the cord-like drawn, and fibrous thin roots. One of the tubers is larger, but flabby, this is the maternal tuber, it was formed last year and will disappear in the fall along with the death of the aboveground organs; the other, smaller, but juicy, daughter, is the tuber of the current year. In the spring of next year, a young tuber will give life to a new plant - a flowering stem and leaves will come to the surface, and a new tuber will be born, designed to replace last year's.
The height of this plant is from 20 to 60 cm. The only peduncle of Lyubka is crowned with a loose inflorescence of 10-25 flowers with dense, like wax petals. It has only two oval-elongated basal leaves, and the flowers are white (sometimes slightly greenish) with a very strong, intoxicating smell, and Lyubka smells only at night. It is her mesmerizing scent that gives the nights of a young summer such an indescribable charm. Only towards the end of its flowering does Lyubka begin to smell during the day, in the last attempt to attract pollinating insects.
You can meet Lyubka two-leaved in mixed and deciduous forests on forest edges and clearings, among thickets of bushes, sometimes in wet meadows, but always in the shade. The root tubers of this plant have medicinal properties and are used in folk medicine, but the collection of medicinal raw materials in nature and the harvesting of its roots is prohibited, since this plant is included in the list of species in need of protection.
Perhaps the most poetic description of this flower was given by Vladimir Soloukhin in his book "Grass": "This flower stands out, as if a guest in a long white dress and white gloves almost to the shoulders appeared at the old village festivities, smart and colorful. As if a snow-white Arab mare appeared in the herd of peasant horses, as if a thin porcelain cup among faience and earthenware ... So a night violet will appear in front of you among the rest of the forest flowers.
... Here's a reason to gossip with the neighbors, when Lyubka spills its aroma at midnight and when moths begin to flock to her: “She is secret, this Lyubka. bees. To bees and the sun. "
... Lyubka smells strongest of all, in the first minutes of flowering, when in the night darkness she opens each of her porcelain-white flowers (greenish in the moonbeam) and in the motionless forest air ennobled with dew a special aroma arises, some alien, unusual for our forest glades.
... God grant you, everyone who reads these lines, to see at least once in his life how the night violet, the night beauty, the night lady, the lyubka, love me, bloom in the silent and motionless moonlight ... "
 |
