Greater burdock

Greater burdock, Edible burdock, or Lappa Burdock is a biennial plant of the Arctium (burdock) genus in the Asteraceae family, cultivated in gardens for its root used as a vegetable.

Greater Burdock is rather tall, reaching as much as 2 metres. It has large, alternating, cordiform leaves that have a long petiole and are pubescent on the underside.
The flowers are purple and grouped in globular capitula, united in clusters. They appear in mid-summer, from July to September. The capitula are surrounded by an involucre made out of many bracts, each curving to form a hook, allowing them to be carried long distances on the fur of animals. The fruits are achenes; they are long, compressed, with short pappuses.
The fleshy tap-root can grow up to 1m long.

Use in traditional medicine
Folk herbalists consider dried burdock to be a diuretic, diaphoretic, and a blood purifying agent. Various parts are used to prevent baldness and to treat rheumatoid arthritis, skin infections, acne, boils, bites, eczema, herpes, impetigo, rashes, ringworm, sore throat, sciatica, poison ivy and poison oak, as a tonic, diuretic and mild laxative, to stimulate bile production and to induce sweating. The seeds of greater burdock are used in traditional Chinese medicine, under the name niupangzi (Chinese: 牛蒡子; pinyin: niúpángzi; some dictionaries list the Chinese as just 牛蒡 niúbàng.)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_burdock
See Also: beli bunga, flowers Auckland, gift Pakistan