The Sour Fig, also known as Carpobrotus. spp, is an easy to grow succulent ground cover that loves the coastal regions. It’s tough and drought resistant and a good source of both pollen and nectar, with flowers in white, yellow, pink or this purple. The honey bees love them.
This is an incredible plant used since ancient times. It is said the Khoikhoi took an infusion of it during pregnancy to ensure a strong, healthy baby and help with an easier birth; and that the leaf sap smeared over the head of a new-born child makes it nimble and strong.
It has many potent uses, one which we may all know is its infamous use in treating blue-bottle stings, available just when you need from natures bounty. If mixed with water and swallowed you can naturally treat diarrhoea, dysentery and stomach cramps – or gargle the mixture for laryngitis, sore throats and mouth infections. Burns, scrapes, cuts, grazes and sunburn, ringworm, eczema, dermatitis, herpes, nappy rash, thrush, cold sores, cracked lips, chafing, skin conditions and allergies…use the leaf as a soothing lotion. If that isn’t a spectrum of uses enough for you, a syrup made from the fruit is said to have laxative properties. Most amazingly, a mixture of leaf juice, honey and olive oil in water is an old remedy for TB. Travelling around mozzies? The leaf juice also relieves the itches from them…not to mention relief from tick and spider bites.
If this wasn’t enough reason to grow our sour fig, its simple uses as a sand binder, ground-cover, dune and embankment stabilizer, and fire-resistant barrier make it a must have – not to mention that it is also wonderfully water-wise.
Get bee-centric and plant up your ground cover with our honey bees in mind.
SOUR FIG BEE PLANT VALUE N0-2 P0-3
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Ref: sanbi.org / Beeplants of South Africa, M.F. Johannsmeier