Sanguisorba

The plants are perennial herbs or small shrubs. The stems grow to 50–200 cm tall and have a cluster of basal leaves, with further leaves arranged alternately up the stem. The leaves are pinnate, 5–30 cm long, with 7-25 leaflets, the leaflets with a serrated margin. Young leaves grow from the crown in the center of the plant. The flowers are small, produced in dense clusters 5–20 mm long; each flower has four very small petals, white to red in colour.

There are about 30 species, including:[1][2]

• Sanguisorba albanica
• Sanguisorba alpina
• Sanguisorba ancistroides
• Sanguisorba annua — annual burnet, prairie burnet, western burnet
• Sanguisorba applanata
• Sanguisorba armena
• Sanguisorba canadensis — Canadian burnet, white burnet
• Sanguisorba caucasica
• Sanguisorba cretica
• Sanguisorba diandra
• Sanguisorba dodecandra — Italian burnet
• Sanguisorba filiformis
• Sanguisorba hakusanensis — Hakusan burnet
• Sanguisorba hybrida
• Sanguisorba magnifica
• Sanguisorba menendezii — Canary Islands burnet
• Sanguisorba menziesii
• Sanguisorba minor — salad burnet, garden burnet, little burnet
• Sanguisorba obtusa — Japanese burnet
• Sanguisorba officinalis — great burnet, burnet bloodwort
• Sanguisorba stipulata
• Sanguisorba tenuifolia — Asian burnet

Sanguisorba minor is a food plant for the larvae of the grizzled skipper (Pyrgus malvae) and the mouse moth (Amphipyra tragopoginis).

Burnets are cultivated as garden plants. Many cultivars have been bred, especially from S. officinalis. S. canadensis is grown for its white flowers on stems that well exceed a meter tall. The plants hybridize easily, producing new mixes.[3] S. obtusa is valued for its foliage of pink-edged, gray-green leaves.[4]

Sanguisorba officinalis is used medicinally in Asia to treat gastrointestinal conditions and bleeding.[5]

Sanguisorba minor, salad burnet, has similarly been used medicinally in Europe to control bleeding. The leaves have a cucumber flavour and can be eaten in salads, or used fresh or dried and made into a tea.[6]

Sanguisorba means ‘blood stauncher’. ‘Sanguis’ is a cognate with ‘sanguine’, meaning 'blood'. ‘Sorbeo’ means 'to staunch’. The plant is known to have styptic properties.[7]