Plants27 Jun 2011 06:56 am
Boophone disticha
Wikipedia says it’s used in South African traditional medicine by the Zulus to induce hallucinations for divinatory purposes, and also as a medicine to treat mental illness.
Hallucinations or mental illness. Hmmmm…. let me think about that choice for a bit.
It also gets very interesting red flowers. Check it out someday if you get the chance.
You can also bookmark this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
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June 27th, 2011 at 11:39 am
On my wish list. Such a cool growth pattern.
July 1st, 2011 at 4:17 pm
I feel compelled to mention that this is an incredibly poisonous plant with similar (anticholinergic) properties to Deadly Nightshade but with vastly less known about the details. The use in South Africa leads to many deaths aside from the deliberate poisonings. Delirium would be more correct than hallucination for the effect produced. Deaths are caused by the inability to cope with heat and lung failure as well as accidents due to misinterpretation of the surroundings. The mnemonic for doctors is “Blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as hell, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone”.
In Deadly Nightshade and its relatives death by stupid actions is quite likely. The similar Datura caused three of a group of four boys to drown in a puddle. The survivor reported that they were looking for red-eyed dolphins, in a puddle in Texas.
Lovely plant, though.