Is Stachytarpheta Cayennensis edible?

All parts of Stachytarpheta cayennensis/jamaicensis can be used dried or fresh to make pleasantly tasting infusion called Brazilian Tea.

How do you care for a porterweed plant?

Blue porterweed plants grow best in full sun to partial shade. When they are first planted, they need moist soil but, once established, they can handle drought quite well. They can tolerate salty conditions too. If you’re planting them as groundcover, space the plants out by 2.5 to 3 feet (1 m.).

Is Blue Porterweed a perennial?

Porterweed is a small perennial shrub that becomes woody toward the base of the stem as is grows to about one year old. Plants grow about 4 feet tall by 6 feet wide before stems droop and touch the ground. Blue or pink flowers are borne terminally on long, stringy spikes at the ends of the stems.

How do you use Stachytarpheta Cayennensis?

The boiled juice or a tea made from the leaves or the whole plant is taken to relieve fever and other symptoms. It is also used for dysentery, pain, and liver disorders. A tea of the leaves is taken to help control diabetes in Peru and other areas.

Do Porterweeds attract butterflies?

Although the flowers on blue porterweed are small and each flower only opens for one day, it attracts a large number of butterflies.

Is porterweed an annual or perennial?

This is one of the few plants that you will find consistently at nearly every butterfly conservatory. In zone 10 Blue Porterweed is likely to be a reliable perennial if not evergreen. Porterweed is known to reseed particularly in mild winter climates.

Should porterweed be cut back?

Plants that become leggy can be pruned back any time. Deadheading of flowers is not necessary, but pinching will improve branching. This Purple Porterweed can be found in the Butterfly Garden of the Garden Ridge Library in the host plant area in front of the sweet olive bushes.

What is eating my porterweed?

Importance as a caterpillar food source: Leaves of blue porterweed are eaten by Tropical Buckeye caterpillars.

Do hummingbirds like porterweed?

Like all of our Porterweeds, this one is an exceptional flowering plant producing copious amounts of nectar for hummingbirds, butterflies, and a variety of bees from spring to fall or year round in warm, frost-free climates.

Can you eat porterweed flowers?

Usage: The leaves and flowers of porterweed are utilized for food and medicine. The small blue to purple flowers are edible, make a beautiful addition to your salads and they taste like mushrooms! The name “porterweed” comes from the dark, foamy infusion of the leaves that can then be made into a beer (porter).

Can you make tea out of porterweed?

Stachytarpheta jamaicensis: Near Beer. Should the civilized world come to an end and you have a hankering for a stout beer you’re in luck: You can make one from the Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis. And if a beer is not to your liking, then you can make it into a tea with a beer-like foam.

What is the use of Stachytarpheta?

What is Stachytarpheta jamaicensis used for?

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Stachytarpheta jamaicensis is used in the Lucayan Archipelago to treat issues of circulation (high blood pressure), the gastrointestinal tract (worms, constipation), the respiratory system, blisters/boils, chills, and fevers.