Growing Leonotis Leonorus
Posted by Growing Entheogens | Filed under Dagga, growing from seed
Leonotis Leonorus, also known as Wild Dagga or Lion’s Tail, is a perennial shrub native to Southern Africa. The plant has a history as a medicinal plant used for headache, cough, fever and many other treatments. It is best known for it’s use as a substitute for Cannabis, hence the name, Wild Dagga – Wild Cannabis.
The plant can get a size of (in ideal conditions) 2 to 5 meters tall. Since it’s native to South Africa it’s important to place the plant in full sun for optimal growth, and if you expect flowers it’s essential. Both the leaves and flowers can be used to smoke or to make tea out of it. Leonurine, one of the psychoactive alkaloids in Leonotis Leonorus, is easily extracted through a water infusion. Personally I do not have any experience with the use of this plant so far, but when I have it will be shared.
I started two separate pots as an experiment, one inside and one in the garden in the same week. Temperatures outside were pretty cold when I started the seeds in the beginning of May, and sometimes plummeted to a chilly 4 degrees Celsius. Not the most ideal circumstances for this plant you would say, but two seeds sprouted nonetheless. I watered plenty in the seedling stage ,and decreased watering when the plant is established. The seedlings inside seemed to thrive very well compared to the seedlings outside, simply because of the temperature differences. It was too cold outside so the small plants went back to a resting-state when the plants inside started to grow. Every pot held about 20 seeds each, 2 seeds sprouted outside, 3 inside. No massive germination rates here. The seeds I started inside where inside a small mat-heated greenhouse with a pretty high humidity. I lost one plant inside on the way, but I do not have an explanation why this happened. Just chance I guess.
When the sun came back in in the end of May the outside plants started showing some growth again. The ones inside were still growing steadily. I pruned the bigger plant of the two inside, and it stretched out two more arms.
Now in July, the differences between the two are still very noticable.
The in-house grown dagga
Don’t mind the white substance on the leaves, it’s spilled paraffine from the candle that was above it…
The outside-grown Dagga
Expand your mind, be self-sufficient, grow your own. Share your seeds
and cuttings, the more knowledge the faster the growth.
October 1, 2010 at 2:21 am
These are also really easy to strike from cuttings. The way I do it is as follows:
Take a stem tip (soft / semi-softwood), preferably not flowering, not too skinny, about 10cm long. Strip off the leaves from the bottom 2/3s, split the stem slightly, and dip into liquid/gel rooting hormone. Put the cuttings into jiffy cubes, spray with water and then seal in a rooting chamber – I use the container from a supermarket cake – the type that has a clear plastic dome that fits into a black plastic base. then I cover it with paper and put on in the windowsill and cover it with paper so that it doesn;t overheat, then LEAVE IT for 2 weeks – don’t open it, don;t move it, just leave it. Roots appear out the side of the jiffy cubes and then they can be removed, hardened off and planted outside.
I use this method for many plants – it works well with Salvia, although is not strictly necessary as it will grow roots fine after 2 weeks just sitting in a glass of water. It works very well for C. sativa (I read about it in the NZ NORML News magazine in 2009 – one of the issues that the NZ Police tried and FAILED to have banned by the NZ chief censor).
As far as the effects of wild dagga go – I did smoke a joint of some flowers a few years ago, but the effects – if any – were so slight as to be possibly caused by placebo effect – I’d just stick to the real thing. But it’s still a lovely plant to grow, and the nectar tastes great – just watch out for ants harvesting it when you suck it out!