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Arctopus echinatus (Family: Apiaceae) |
 
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Afrikaans: Kaapse platdoring, sieketroos  |
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| Plant Type: |
 Shrub |
| Height: |
0.1m |
| Spread: |
0.6m |
| Special properties: |
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Has Medicinal Uses |
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| Rarity Status: |
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Common |
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| Preferred rainfall: |
Winter |
| Preferred position: |
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Full Sun |
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| Tolerated soil: |
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Sand (coarse texture, drains easily) |
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| Flowering time |
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| Flower colours |
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| Flower type |
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Flower info |
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Males bear umbels of small cream flowers, borne on short flower stalks. Female flowers greenish, stalkless, arranged in flower-like heads (pseudanthia) surrounded by four or five prominent spiny bracts. |
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| Leaf shape |
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Leaf info |
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Evergreen |
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Leaves large, simple, prostrate, ovate to rhomboidal in outline, with spiny margins and sharp recurved thorns between the leaf divisions. |
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Seed info |
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Fruit dry, brown and spiny. |
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| Description |
This peculiar plant is quite unlike any other and most people would not recognize it as a member of the family Apiaceae.
The plant has a thick, tuberous root with a rosette of spiny leaves which is borne flat on the ground.
Plants are either male or female. |
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| Growing |
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| Distribution |
Widely distributed in the Cape fynbos region, from Nieuwoudtville in the north to Port Elizabeth in the east. |
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| History |
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| Uses |
The roots (or the white resinous gum which oozes from it) are used for madicinal purposes.
It was a popular early Cape remedy for numerous diseases and the use of the plant probably had its origin in the Khoi culture.
Decoctions, infusions or tinctures of the root have been used to treat venereal diseases.
The medicine is said to be diuretic, demulcent and purgative, and is widely used to treat bladder ailments and skin irritations.
Other traditional uses include the treatment of epilepsy. |
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References |
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• Ben-Erik van Wyk, (2005), Medicinal Plants of South Africa ,Briza Publications |
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