Safflower - Carthamus tinctorius

I have never seen this plant before until last year when I planted a packet of mixed wild flower seeds and this is one of the plants that grew and it is related to the sunflower and daisy. Apparently this plant is a herb and has been used over many years as a clothing and food dye and it is a cheap alternative to saffron. It is now used as a cooking oil and is an ingredient for hair and skin products because it has moisturising properties, it is also rich in vitamin E and is an antioxidant. “Apparently this plant was highly popular among the ancient Egyptians and they used it to dye textiles from the twelfth dynasty and clothing made from the flowers was found on eighteenth dynasty mummies in Egypt.” The plant is also know by other names such as “American saffron, oil thistle, false saffron, dyers saffron, majestic orange, zaffer and Mexican saffron. It was quite interesting watching the plant grow as it had a flower head which slightly resembled an artichoke except that it was a lot smaller.

Done