Jenny submitted a new Showcase Item:
Cancer Bush (lessertia Frutescens)
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Cancer Bush (lessertia Frutescens)
Lessertia frutescens (L.) Goldblatt & J.C.Manning subsp. frutescens (= Sutherlandia frutescens (L.) R.Br.)
Family: Fabaceae
Common names: sutherlandia, cancer bush, balloon pea (Eng.); umnwele(Xhosa & Zulu); kankerbos, blaasbossie, blaas-ertjie, eendjies, gansiekeurtjie, klappers, hoenderbelletjie (Afr.)
I do not use conventional medicine at all and every year I try to add a few more medicinal plants to my collection. Last year October I bought a cancer bush, because it has many medicinal benefits. From what I read, the plant is supposed to flower in Summer, but my plant started flowering the last month of Autumn (May) and is now still flowering in winter and also producing seed pods, so I will have seeds available to plant from next month, can't wait!
Pics of how the plant looks currently, including pics of the seed pods, is attached to this post.
I developed a bad chest infection a week ago, so I ate a couple of cancerbush leaves and within 2 days the chest infection was gone. I highly recommend this plant!
More details about this plant:
Lessertia frutescens is a much-respected and long-used medicinal plant that is also an attractive garden plant, and has been cultivated in gardens for many years for its fine form, striking colour and luminous flowers. It was previously known as Sutherlandia frutescens.
Lessertia frutescens is an attractive, small, soft-wooded shrublet, 0.5 to 1 m in height. The leaves are pinnately compound, the leaflets 4-10 mm long, grey-green in colour, giving the bush a silvery appearance. They have a very bitter taste.
Lessertia frutescens occurs naturally throughout the dry parts of southern Africa — in Western Cape and up the west coast as far north as Namibia and into Botswana, and in the western Karoo to Eastern Cape. It is also found in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. It shows remarkable variation within its distribution.
Lessertia frutescens has many common names. It has become widely known as sutherlandia, The name cancer bush, kankerbos, comes from its reputation as a cure for cancer. The names balloon-pea, blaasbossie or blaas-ertjie (meaning bladder-bush or bladder-pea) all refer to the inflated, bladder-like fruits.
Uses
This plant is one of the most talked about in the ethnobotanical world because it has a strong reputation as a cure...
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