Cornflower

The blue “valoshka” among the rye is a favourite motif of Belarusian songs, wreaths and embroidery.

An annual plant 30–80 cm tall, with narrow, grey-green, woolly leaves. Its flower heads have intensely blue, funnel-shaped outer florets – the shade is even known as “cornflower blue”. For thousands of years it has accompanied cereal crops, especially rye, as an arable weed, and with the intensification of farming it has become rarer in many countries. The petals were once used for dyeing and as an ingredient in herbal teas.

Significance in the country

In Belarusian folk tradition the valoshka is an inseparable part of the rye-field landscape – woven into harvest and Kupala Night wreaths, it appears in songs and embroidery as a symbol of the native land and of purity.

Where it grows

Throughout the country – in cereal fields, especially rye, on fallow land and along roadsides; most common on lighter, sandy soils.

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