Common Names
Wild Dagga, Klip Dagga, Lion's Ear

Botanical Name
Leonotis nepetafolia

Plant Family
Lamiaceae (Mint Family)

Native Range
India and Africa

Life Cycle
Annual

Hardiness Zone
2-11

Habit
In it’s native tropical habitat it grows to 10ft with whorls of spiky orange-lipped flowers that are attractive to humans and hummingbirds alike. Here on temperate Vancouver Island, it will reach a still lofty 6ft in a season and put on a flowery show that will garner many comments by passersby.

Sun/Soil
Full sun, well-drained soil. 

Germination/Sowing
Wild Dagga can be started indoors from seed in late April or May. The seeds germinate readily into satisfyingly large and sturdy seedlings that can be planted out after all danger of frost has passed.

Growing/Care
The plants grow rapidly unfolding tall spires of aromatic foliage to support flower upon flower. They will continue to bloom throughout the summer season until the fall or winter frosts. Easy to care for, they are not fussy about soil and require very little water.

Harvesting
The individual flowers are pulled by hand from the flower heads as they open. The leaves can also be harvested.

Culinary Uses
None known.

Medicinal Uses
This is a plant that is intensely ornamental and worth growing for that reason alone, but under its intoxicating exterior a medicine, perhaps just as intoxicating lies within. The flowers are collected in parts of Africa, and Mexico where it also grows wild, and is said to be smoked as a substitute to marijuana. This is where it’s common name ‘Wild Dagga’ comes, (dagga being another name for weed).

Though decidedly not remotely as strong and psychedelic as marijuana, Wild Dagga has a gentle psychoactive effect bringing about a heightened sense of awareness and a pleasant sense of light-heartedness. It arouses each of your faculties of sense perception making the world come alive; life sparkles just a little brighter. Mildly psychoactive herbs such as Wild Dagga can act as antidepressants gently lifting us out of the starkness of normal life, the gray doldrums of mundane existence. They open us up and help inspire a sense of child-like wonder that has often been lost somewhere along the way.

Wild Dagga is a lovely herb for sensitive folks who appreciate subtle shifts in consciousness; little gifts of awareness gained from a different vantage point. Wild Dagga helps us to feel more present, engage with out senses; live a bit more in our bodies and less in our minds. As I watch the hummingbirds visiting flower to flower delighting on the sweet nectar inside, I wonder is this what brings them back each day humming happily in the afternoon sun?

Themes
Attracts Pollinators, Deer Resistant, Apothecary Garden, Low Maintenance, Drought Tolerant, Cut Flowers.