Sempervivum

Facial steam to heal and nourish skin.

The juice is commonly applied directly to the skin for many of the same uses as aloe vera such as burns, warts and insect bites, nettle stings, cuts, ulcers, itching and burning skin.

It is said to remove warts and corns. Parkinson tells us:

‘The juice takes away corns from the toes and feet if they be bathed therewith every day, and at night emplastered as it were with the skin of the same House Leek.’

The leaves sliced in two and the inner surface applied to warts, act as a positive cure for them.

It has been used historically and is used presently as a medicinal herb. It has no known side effects (aside from being an emetic in large doses, which that property is actually useful in treating certain diseases) or drug interactions. Common herbal uses are stopping bad cases of diarrhea by drinking the juice of the leaf or eating the leaves directly.

The famous English herbalist Culpepper says ‘Our ordinary Houseleek is good for all inward heats, as well as outward, and in the eyes or other parts of the body: a posset made of the juice is singularly good in all hot agues, for it cooleth and tempereth the blood and spirits and quencheth the thirst; and is also good to stay all defluction or sharp and salt rheums in the eyes, the juice being dropped into them. If the juice be dropped into the ears, it easeth pain…. It cooleth and restraineth all hot inflammations St. Anthony’s fire (Erysipelas), scaldings and burnings, the shingles, fretting ulcers, ringworms and the like; and much easeth the pain and the gout.’

The name Sempervivum has its origin in the Latin semper (“always”) and vivus (“living”), because this perennial plant keeps its leaves in winter and is very resistant to difficult conditions of growth. The common name houseleek is believed to stem from the traditional practice of growing plants on the roofs of houses to ward off fire and lightning strikes. The Welsh often hold the superstitious belief that having it grow on the roof of the house ensures the health and prosperity of those who live there. The plant is not closely related to the true, which belongs to the onion family.

Aaron’s Rod, Ayegreen, Ayron, Barbe de Jupiter, Bullock’s Eye, Hens and Chickens, Joubarbe, Joubarbe des Toits, Jupiter’s Beard, Jupiter’s Eye, Liveforever, Sempervivum tectorum, Sengreen, Siempreviva Mayor, Thor’s Beard, Thunder Plant. Other common names reflect the plant’s ancient association with Thor, the Norse god of thunder, and the Roman Jupiter. Hence names such as “Jupiter’s beard” and the German Donnerbart (“thunder beard”).

History relates that a botanist tried hard for eighteen months to dry a plant of the House Leek for his herbarium, but failed in this object. He afterwards restored it to its first site when it grew again as if nothing had interfered with its ordinary life.

Houseleeks exist from Morocco to Iran, through the mountains of Iberia, the Alps, Carpathians, Balkan mountains, Turkey, the Armenian mountains, in the northeastern part of the Sahara Desert, and the Caucasus. Their ability to store water in their thick leaves allows them to live on sunny rocks and stony places in the mountain, subalpine and alpine belts.