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Cobblers Pegs, Farmers Friend ...
Bidens Pilosa
Family: ASTERACEAE |
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| Cobblers Pegs - Bidens Pilosa |
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Of all the wild food available in Australia the Cobblers Peg, otherwise called Farmers Friend because the seed sticks to you, would have to be amongst the most unpopularwith folk who work in gardens.
And yet, in many other parts of the world - mainly the Southern hemisphere interestingly enough, it is a popular and widely-used foodstuff and medicine. It's therapeutic uses are extraordinarily comprehensive (as the list below demonstrates).
As a foodstuff, it is in daily use as a vegetable in Africa. The leaves can be dried and stored for the future or cooked. Some folks advise draining and refreshing the water often during cooking to purge the bitterness from the taste. We use the leaves straight from the plant in salads or direct to the mouth and experience no bitterness. The taste is a slightly nutty flavour and, like all herbs, our bodies will tell us exactly and unambiguously when we have eaten enough in one session.
| The extraordinarily-efficient barbs of the seeds |
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We had a drive full of Cobblers Pegs when we first arrived here at Middle Path, but found that when we applied a few applications of rock powder to the area where they where growing, they didn't come back. Nature has an amazing way of restoring the balance. Wherever our neighbours spray chemicals there come up the Cobblers Pegs like a lawn doing their utmost to restore balance again.
A friend of mine sent for some seeds of a particular herb overseas which was known to be excellent for stomach ulcers. When she got the seeds, she laughed, it was Cobblers Pegs.
This weed is rich in minerals and especially Calcium which is the great healer for stomach ulcers.
Cobblers Pegs can be dried and used as a herbal tea as well as a vegetable source. |
These conditions below have been successfully treated with Cobblers Pegs in different parts of the world:-
With a track record like that it is no wonder it has become known as "Farmer's Friend"! And yet there are still far more folk near us who poison it than harvest it.
Here is some more information from Doris Pozzi's “Edible Weeds and Garden Plants of Melbourne”:
| Cobblers Pegs seeds - unable to get a grip on the leather have totally smothered the laces on these boots after a short walk through a crop |
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As a foodstuff, it is in daily use as a vegetable in Africa. It is used as a medicinal plant in many regions of Africa, Asia and tropical America. Roots,
leaves and seed have been reported to possess antibacterial, antidysenteric, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antimalarial, diuretic, hepato-protective and
hypotensive activities.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the fresh or dried tender shoots and young leaves are used as a leaf vegetable especially in times of food scarcity. It is an ingredient of sauces accompanying staple food. The leaves are, fresh or after parboiling, dried in the sun and stored as powder for the dry season.
In Uganda, five different medicinal uses are known: the sap from crushed leaves is used to speed up clotting of blood in fresh wounds; a leaf decoction is used for treating headache; sap from the plant is put in the ear to treat ear infection; a decoction of leaf powder is used to treat kidney problems; and a herbal tea made from the plant decreases flatulence.
The Manyika people in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe retain the first water used for cooking Bidens pilosa foliage for later use as a medicinal drink to cure stomach and mouth ulcers, diarrhea, headaches and hangover. The Zulu in South Africa use a suspension of powdered leaves as an enema for abdominal trouble, whereas in Congo a concoction made from the whole plant is taken as a poison antidote, to ease child delivery and to relieve the pain from hernia. In South Africa, strong decoctions of the leaf taken in large doses have been reported to be helpful in treating arthritis.
The plant sap is applied to burns in Tanzania. In Nigeria, the powder or ash from the seed is used as a local anaesthetic and rubbed into cuts. The Giriama tribe from the coastal areas of Kenya use a leaf extract to treat swollen spleens in children. This tribe also uses a mixture of the dried and ground leaves of Bidens pilosa, soap and hot pepper as an insecticide for the control of leaf miners and other insects. It has been used in traditional medicine systems for infections of all kinds: from such upper respiratory tract infections
as colds and flu to urinary tract infections and venereal diseases-and even infected wounds on the skin. |
| Cobblers pegs grow anywhere |
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Some of the other names it is known by (around the world):
- Kinehi / Ko'oko'olau [Hawai'i]
- Xian Feng Cao ("Abundant Weed"), Gui Zhen Cao ("Demon Spike Grass" or "Ghost Needle Weed") [China]
- Aceitilla [Spanish]
- Amor Seco (Desmodium adscendens is also called "Amor Seco") [Peru]
- Beggars Tick / Spanish Needle / Needle Grass [USA]
- Black Jack [South Africa]
- Cobblers Peg, Farmer's Friend [Australia]
- Fisi 'Uli [Tonga]
- Has Kung Chia, Han Feng Cao [Taiwan]
- Muni [Aymara, Quechua]
- Ottrancedi [India]
- Picao preto, Cuamba [Brazil]
- Piripiri [Cook Islands]
- Saetilla, Sillk'iwa [Quechua]
- Sanana Vinillo, Saytilla, Natilluna [Bolivia]
- Spanish Needle, Needle Grass [Barbados, St. Thomas]
- Te de Coral [Mexico]
- Z'Herbe Zedruite [Caribbean]
- Fisi'uli [Tonga]
- Uqadolo [Southern Africa]
- Z'Herbe Zedruite, Z'Herbe Z'Aiguille [Dominica, Martinique]
| Cobblers Pegs growing happily on a rock at Middle Path |
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Perhaps the most striking aspect of this extraordinary plant is its ability to thrive in the most inhospitable of places.
Here a healthy plant is growing vigorously on a rock - a seed lodged in a crack, germinated and this grew.
This quality is possibly one of Cobbler's Pegs greatest gifts - the talent for surviving when the environment becomes harsh and inhospitable, perhaps a quality which we humans may need in the near future?
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Further Reading
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