Leonotis nepetifolia

Description

A medicinal, honey-bearing, and psychoactive plant, it is also used for cutting fresh and dry flowers.
Lion’s ear or cob dagga is an annual plant from the Usnatica family that originates from South and East Africa. It grows up to 3 meters in height. The stem is ridged, firm, and elastic. The leaves are smooth and toothed. The flower is an orange cluster adored by bees, insects, and butterflies. It is very similar to Wild Dagga (Leonotis leonurus). The dried leaves of the plant have psychoactive properties and are used as a legal substitute for marijuana. Lion’s ear is a mild narcotic but has many medicinal properties. Smoking dry herbs create a euphoric effect due to one of the active components, the mildly psychoactive alkaloid leonurin. In Trinidadian medicine, it is also used as a tea preparation for calming, anxiety, tension, cough, fever, and malaria. Flowers are the most potent part of the plant. The Nepetifolia species contains more Leonurin than any other wild Dagga species.

Propagation: By seed

The seeds are sown in a container during the winter or directly after the danger of frost has passed. If you want your plant to bloom during the season after April, it should not be sown.

Pre-treatment: Keep the seeds for 2-4 weeks in the refrigerator and then sow.

Sowing: just press the seeds into the substrate on the surface and moisten them with water, cover them with nylon – until the seeds germinate, the nylon is removed every day for a couple of hours and returned. When the seeds germinate, remove the nylon completely.

Germination: Temperature 22-25 C, germinates in 3-4 weeks