Rhodiola rosea Seeds | Golden Root Adaptogen
LATIN NAME: Rhodiola rosea
COMMON NAME: Roseroot
Plant Profile
Roseroot (Rhodiola rosea) is a succulent in the stonecrop family. Roseroot holds its fleshy, bluish-green leaves and dense heads of small, yellow flowers, and the whole plant stands in the low, clustering cushions. It is a plant of open, sunny, sharp-draining ground. Add these qualities together and you have a species well worth a place in the garden.
Science & Biotechnology
Quality rhodiola root is standardised to the phenylpropanoid rosavins (commonly at least 3 per cent) together with the phenylethanoid salidroside (at least 1 per cent), the roughly 3:1 ratio mirroring wild Siberian root. The European Medicines Agency has issued a traditional-use monograph for temporary symptoms of stress, such as fatigue and exhaustion, and randomised trials in stress-related fatigue and mild anxiety report benefits emerging after four to eight weeks rather than acutely. The evidence base is still small and mostly short-term. Because of theoretical monoamine-related activity, combining rhodiola with antidepressant medication should be discussed with a prescriber, and it is avoided in pregnancy.
Within the stonecrop family, Rhodiola rosea is of continuing interest to researchers working on plant diversity, seed biology and the selection of improved garden forms. Centuries of cultivation have left a detailed record of how it grows and behaves.
Uses & Benefits
Roseroot brings genuine presence to the garden and earns its keep across the growing season. Roseroot is a fine, quiet plant of rock garden and study collection. It is a fine, quiet plant of open, sunny, sharp-draining garden. Give young plants sharp-draining soil and open, sunny spot, and cushions will spread over the years. Thereafter it wants only the ordinary attentions any garden plant receives.
Rhodiola root is the Arctic adaptogen: standardized rosavin-and-salidroside extracts have human-trial support for fatigue, stress resilience and mental performance, and it is among the best-selling evidence-backed tonic herbs in the world.
Growing from Seed
Roseroot grows readily from seed. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. When the young plants are big enough to handle, space them into pots or a nursery row and let them size up before their final move.
Our Take
Roseroot repays a little patience at sowing time with plenty of garden presence later.
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Related Reading
More species in the same orbit as Roseroot: