Against Hair-pulling. Lessertia frutescens, Balloon Pea, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Already in 1683 self-taught botanist James Sutherland (c.1639-1719) was cultivating this plant in his Physic Garden on the grounds of Trinity Hospital in Edinburgh. He records it in the census of plants of this, the first Botanical Garden in Scotland, as Colutea flore rubello and in English as 'Red flowered Bastard-Senna from the Cape of good Hope'. Later it was given his name in Latin: Sutherlandia, and later again it goes scientifically by Lessertia frutescens. Lessertia is for Jules Paul Benjamin de Lessert (1773-1847). Usually today it's called Sutherlandia or Balloon Pea or Cancerbush. It's reputed to be an immune booster.
Apparently it's also some sort of psychic medicine: Zulus call it umwele, meaning something like an antidote to 'pulling one's hair out in distress'. In Afrikaans Sutherlandia goes by a pet-name eentjies (ducks) or gansies (geese) because of the seed pods or bladders (see photo) that float in water.
Against Hair-pulling. Lessertia frutescens, Balloon Pea, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Already in 1683 self-taught botanist James Sutherland (c.1639-1719) was cultivating this plant in his Physic Garden on the grounds of Trinity Hospital in Edinburgh. He records it in the census of plants of this, the first Botanical Garden in Scotland, as Colutea flore rubello and in English as 'Red flowered Bastard-Senna from the Cape of good Hope'. Later it was given his name in Latin: Sutherlandia, and later again it goes scientifically by Lessertia frutescens. Lessertia is for Jules Paul Benjamin de Lessert (1773-1847). Usually today it's called Sutherlandia or Balloon Pea or Cancerbush. It's reputed to be an immune booster.
Apparently it's also some sort of psychic medicine: Zulus call it umwele, meaning something like an antidote to 'pulling one's hair out in distress'. In Afrikaans Sutherlandia goes by a pet-name eentjies (ducks) or gansies (geese) because of the seed pods or bladders (see photo) that float in water.