A flower of a medunitsa, medunka or pulmonaria is a plant popular in modern floriculture, which is famous for its exceptional decorative and healing qualities. Firstly, as the name implies, lungfish is a great honey plant with a lot of nectar. And secondly, they knew about the amazing beneficial properties of this plant from ancient times and used them in the treatment of various ailments.
In addition, the flowers of the plant have an extraordinary feature to change the color of the corolla from pink to blue during the flowering period. Until now, there is no consensus about the species diversity of lungfish. According to different sources, the number of species varies from 15 to 70. This article describes the most common types of lungfish that can be found today in home gardening.
Did you know? The scientific name of the lungfish - pulmonaria - is derived from the Latin "pulmon" - "light". They nicknamed the plant as such because the oval leaves of the Lunaria resembled the lungs in form, which is why the plant was used to treat diseases of the lungs. According to legend, the blue flowers of the nectar are the flowers of Adam, the first man; and pink - Eve, the first woman. Thus, two different colors on one plant signify a unity of opposites.
Valomite medunica
This is a rather rare type of lungfish, which is valued for its high decorative qualities. Heat-loving plant, which grows in large quantities along the mountain rivers in the Apennines, at an altitude of up to 1500 m, in the thickets of bushes, on sand and gravel soils. 
Perennial herb with a developed rhizome. Bottom leaves are located on long petioles; few stem leaves sessile. The leaves of the lanceolate form reach a length of about 20 cm and a width of 10 cm.
The leaf plates of the medunitsa of this type are covered with silver and white spots, which in summer grow and merge, which is why the leaf turns from green to silver. The tree-like medunitsa blooms in early spring with purple-red flowers; peduncles reach a height of 45 cm. From this species, new hybrid varieties of a plant with silver leaves have been developed. The most famous variety Margery Fish, which has a high winter hardiness.
Long-leafed medunitsa
The species is widely distributed in North-Western Europe, in countries such as England, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, where the long-leaved melluna grows in the deciduous forests and along the coast of the rivers. 
This is a perennial herbaceous plant, the stems of which reach a height of up to 25 cm. It has unusual, lanceolate or arrow-shaped leaf plates 20 to 50 cm long and about 6 cm wide. Top leaves are dark green with silvery-white spots and pubescence; Bottom have a dark, gray-green shade. Leaf plates are more dense than other species, so that they are more resistant to bright sun.
The flowering period of the long-leaf medunitsa begins in April. Peduncles reach a height of 25 cm, the flowers change their color from pink to blue. The most famous subspecies named after the English breeder Bertram Anderson, is characterized by long, narrow leaf plates with white spots and bright blue flowers.
Medunitsa red
Red medunitsa is most often found in subalpine beech and pine forests and the mountains of Albania, Bulgaria and Hungary at an altitude of 300 to 1600 meters. This species is the most interesting from the point of view of decorative cultivation, as the red medunitz looks uncharacteristically: it has a bright red, scarlet color of flowers, for which it received its name. 
The plant has long rhizomes that grow intensively (annual growth is from 7 to 15 cm) and form a soil cover of shiny leaves up to 30 cm high. The leaf plates are narrow, without spots, light green, up to 15 cm in length, covered with glands and bristles.
This species grows crowded, forming dense groups. Winter-hardy, but requires preventive shelter in the cold period. Medunitsa red - the most early-flowering type of pulmonaria.
Medunitsa officinalis
Medunitsa officinalis - this species extends from Western Europe to Siberia, grows mainly on humus-rich soils. 
Sheet plate alternate. Stem leaves oblong, basal - have a heart-shaped or ovoid shape and are located on long petioles. Medunitsa officinalis begins to bloom in early May. The inflorescences are pink, but as the flowers bloom, the corollas take on a blue-purple color.
There are various subspecies of medicinal medunitsa with white flowers and leaves without spots. The following varieties have special decorative qualities: Cambridge Blue - with pale blue flowers, Coral - with pink and Shishinghurh White - with white. The type of medunitsa medicinal is very popular in gardening due to the presence of useful properties of the plant, which find their application in traditional medicine.
Important! Apply infusions and decoctions of dry leaves of the Lunar and its fresh juice in bronchitis, lung diseases, in particular, pulmonary tuberculosis, pediatric tuberculosis, as well as in diseases of the kidneys, liver, hemorrhoids, diseases of the thyroid gland.
The softest medunitsa (soft)
Lunar soft or the softest grows in the taiga zone, as well as in rare forests from Western Europe to Eastern Siberia and Asia Minor. The species was called "the softest" due to the velvety edge of the leaves of the plant. 
The rhizomes of the medunitsa softest are short, knotty, black, short stems, growing closer to the flowering period. Bottom leaves are barely noticeable, they become large before flowering, acquiring velvety pubescence.
The sheet plates are sharp, wide, elliptical in shape, reaching about 20-30 cm in length. The flowers are bright blue or blue-violet, the pedicels and calyx glandular pubescent. The fruit of the inflorescence is an ovoid nutlet. Medunitsa blooms soft from late April to mid-June.
Practically every folk healer knows what is the softest medunitsa due to the presence of valuable useful properties of the plant. For medicinal purposes, use both dry leaves and fresh juice from them.
Important! Preparations of medunitsy make soft during the flowering period, before the start of fruiting.Broths and infusions of plants have expectorant, antiseptic, wound healing, hemostatic and astringent action. As an external agent, fresh juice of the leaves of the plant is used in the treatment of skin lesions.
Medunitsy unclear (dark)
Medunitsya obscure or dark - the most common type of medunitsa in Eastern Europe. It is a perennial with a very powerful dark, brown rhizome. The plant is completely covered with hard glandular hairs, the stem is ribbed and slightly bent, reaching a height of 30 cm. 
An early-flowering species that blooms immediately after the snow melts, lifting its stems above the ground. As the plant blossoms, the stems grow, reaching about 20-30 cm in diameter. Stem leaves are green, spotless, medium-sized and oblong.
The flowers are predominantly lilac, sometimes they are white or purple specimens, located at the end of the stem and gathered in a curl inflorescence. Dry fruits in the process of ripening fall into four single-seeded nuts. After the seeds ripen, the flowering shoots together with the leaves die off completely and the rosettes appear on the plant.
Medunitsa sugar (spotted)
Medunitsa sugar grows in the forests of Italy and France as a groundcover. The plant is a perennial, with large oval leaves about 27 cm long and up to 10 cm wide. The sheet plate is opaque, dark green, with silver spots.
Inflorescences funnel-shaped, passing from pink to blue color. Sugar medunitsa is a unique species that initiated a variety of subspecies and varieties that affect their decorative qualities.
The most interesting of them are:
- Mrs. Moon - with red-purple unusual flowers and elegant leaves;
- Dora Barnsfield is a fast-growing lungfish with light pink flowers;
- Argenta Group - with deep purple inflorescences of saturated color and almost completely silver leaves;
- Silverado - with unusual leaves, silvery in the center and a green border around the edges.
Narrow-leaved medunica
The narrow-leafed medunitsa grows on the edges of light forests, in thickets of bushes, on black soil, and also on sandy or carbonate soil of Central and Southern Europe. It is a grassy perennial with short, black, cord-shaped roots, with a rough and hard pubescence. 
Stems are strong, hairy-scaly at the base, reach a height of 15 to 40 cm. The leaves are lanceolate and linear-lanceolate form. Basal leaves are long and narrow, about 20-30 cm in length and 2-3 cm in width; stem leaves sharp, sessile, rigidly hairy, also linear-lanceolate.
The flowers are collected in inflorescences, curls, have a bell-shaped cup with triangular, oblong teeth. Flowers bright blue or blue-purple. The plant blooms in April - May. This type of lungwort has a long growing period and does not have a rest period.
Did you know? Due to the fact that in the people lungwort is often used as an external wound-healing agent, it is called "parrot grass." Another popular name for lungfish is “iodine herb”, derived from the fact that the fresh juice of its leaves when applied to the skin leaves small yellow specks, as from iodine. And the plant got the name "ox tongue" because of the appearance of its leaves: hard, rough and hairy, similar to tongues of cattle.
