FoI
Garden Stock
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Garden Stock
ntroduced Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Garden stock, Common stock
Botanical name: Matthiola incana   Family: Brassicaceae (Mustard family)

Prized for its spicy scent, stock is a favorite old-fashioned English cut flower and annual (grows just one year) It forms pretty spires of blooms in white, pink, rose, lavender, red and mixes. Plants reach 15 to 36 inches tall and thrive in the cool weather of spring and autumn. Stock is valued for fragrant flowers that can be used as a fresh or dried cut flower. Justifiably popular for beds, borders, cut flowers and they also make magnificent plants for winter flowering in the cold greenhouse. Flowers early summer. A dark blue or purple dye is obtained from the flowers. The seeds are aphrodisiac, bitter, diuretic, expectorant, stimulant, stomachic and tonic. An infusion has been used in the treatment of cancer and when mixed with wine it has been used as an antidote to poisonous bite.

Identification credit: Shaista Ahmad Photographed in Delhi & Nainital

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