Łódź, Politechnika

The hoverfly is Scaeva selenitica, male. Native to Europe and introduced into the United States late in the 19th century. Flowers can be white or rose as well as blue. Edible plant - leaves raw or cooked, bitter in taste; roots dried and roasted serve as coffee substitute; leaves raw or cooked like parsnip; flowers raw (in salads). Herbal plant - roots and leaves are appetizer, cholagogue, depurative, digestive, diuretic, hypoglycaemic, laxative and tonic; the roots extracts have experimentally produced a slower and weaker heart rate (pulse); the latex in the stems is applied to warts in order to destroy them. Usable plant - a blue dye has been obtained from the leaves; the roots contain inulin which is a polymer of fructose molecules with an end glucose molecule and can be used for the production of fructose syrups.