Heart-leaved Globe Daisy

Long before it reached alpine nurseries and rock gardens further afield, Heart-leaved Globe Daisy simply belonged to the high, stony ground of the European mountains, tucking itself into limestone cracks where almost nothing else could get a foothold. Mountain shepherds and botanists who wandered those scree slopes came to know it as one of the first cheerful blooms to appear after snowmelt, its little blue globes scattered across gray rock like scattered beads. Gardeners eventually carried it down from the peaks into troughs and rockeries, prizing it purely for its toughness and its color rather than for any kitchen or medicine chest use. Its cousin species in warmer Mediterranean country, particularly Globularia alypum, did carry a folk reputation as a purgative herb, but that tradition was never really extended to this smaller, high-altitude relative.