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Cobblers Pegs or 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 the most unpopular.
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). where it is in daily use as a vegetable. The leaves are dried and stored for future use.
As a foodstuff, it is in daily use as a vegetable in Africa. The leaves can be dried and stored for 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.
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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.
Some of the other names it is known by (around the world) include:
- 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]
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Cobblers Pegs in rock |
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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.
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This document (www.middlepath.com.au/plant/coblrspgs.php) was last updated on Monday June 16th 2008 || email
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Content on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for “professional” “medical” advice or diagnosis. You are responsible for your own health and therefore should make sure you have sought appropriate advice before embarking on any course of therapy or treatment for any condition you may consider that you might be experiencing. If you have or suspect that you have a “medical” problem, it is your responsibility to contact a ”qualified“ health care practitioner.
Disclaimer: Information and statements on this site are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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