Pulmonaria Opal - Lungwort

<strong>Ideal for carpeting a woodland floor or a shady area even on poor, relatively dry soil</strong>, <a href="https://www.promessedefleurs.ie/perennials/perennials-by-variety/pulmonaria-lungwort.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lungwort</a> is indeed a perennial with rootstocks that spreads easily to 30–50 cm wide. Its villous leaves, covered with rough or silky hairs, form a tapetum of rosettes of long lanceolate leaves, brightened by those famous irregular silvery-white spots that earned it the name lungwort. In some hybrids such as Majesté or Diane Claire, the silvery blotch extends over almost the entire dark-green lamina, giving an <strong>almost unreal, even futuristic appearance to the foliage</strong>. <strong>Plant puts on a multitude of clusters of pendulous bell-shaped flowers, lasting for nearly three months from March to June</strong>. Like comfreys, which belong to same family Boraginaceae, flower colour changes as they ripen, often from purplish-pink to blue then to violet, producing a pretty variegated display. The physical appearance of lungworts once supported the famous Doctrine of Signatures, which holds that appearance of plants in particular is supposed to reveal their use and function. Thus, thanks to Paracelsus, the plant was used in the Middle Ages to treat breathing ailments such as tuberculosis. <strong>This hardy plant</strong> that often remains evergreen in sheltered spots <strong>is an excellent groundcover</strong>, quickly bringing a splash of colour to exhausted soil beneath trees, bushes, along north- or east-facing façades or paths, and at the foot of sunless walls. This plant is a boon in cool climates, brightening garden areas where few plants will grow, such as beneath conifers.