The medical plant found in some regions of Georgia – Zmerkhli (Ruscus Hypophhyllum L)

Abstract

Zmerkhli (Ruscus Hypophyllum L) is an evergreen shrub from the Asparagaceae family that can grow up to 60 cm tall. Although this plant is widely distributed according to its range, its population is small, and it has significantly decreased in recent decades due to the aforementioned factors. For this reason, Zmerkhli is rightly considered a plant on the brink of extinction, as indicated in the Red Book of the USSR, which suggests that it is necessary to prohibit the harvesting of this plant everywhere and to promote its propagation.

In the past, an infusion of Zmerkhli was used to treat the uterus and as a uterotonic to help expel blood after childbirth. The seeds were groundused as a flower substitute. The fruit is edible, but due to its rather unappealing taste, it is consumed infrequently.

Zmerkhli, Colchic Tagvisara (Latin: Ruscus colchicus), is a dioecious plant belonging to the Asparagaceae family. It is a low, rhizomatous, evergreen semi-shrub; the ultimate branches of the last shoots are transformed into leaf-like, large, leathery, glossy green, pointed, thornless phylloclades, with the lower ones opposite and the rest alternate. The fruit is red. It flowers and bears fruit from April to September. It is fairly widely distributed. It grows in lowland, mountain, and subalpine belt forests and shrublands. It is found in the western and, rarely, central parts of the Caucasus ecoregion. It is an endemic species of the region. In Georgia, it occurs in Abkhazia, Adjara, and Kartli. It is used in ornamental horticulture. Although this plant is widely represented in its range, its population is small and has sharply declined in recent decades.