Common Name:

General Information

Thunbergia lancifolia is an erect, branched, herbaceous perennial plant with stems that can become more or less woody; it grows up to 90cm tall from a woody rhizome[].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and hair shampoo. The large, showy, blue flowers with orange-yellow throat and the erect, short, shrubby habit make this a plant with potential as an ornamental[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Burundi, Tanania, Angola, Zambia, southern DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe.

Habitat

Dry, regularly burned savannah and open woodland, at elevations from 1,000 - 1,800 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Perennial
Height	0.75 m
Cultivation Status	Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

Not known

Edible Uses

Young leaves - cooked and eaten as a vegetable[]. Rather tough[]. Sometimes the leaves are cooked in the sour liquid ('matsukwa') that remains after soaking maize, sometimes they are mixed with young leaves of sweet potato. This latter product is not much liked and only cooked occasionally[].

The flowers are rich in nectar and are sucked for their sweetness[].

Medicinal

The rhizome is applied as a dried powder on swellings, and an extraction in water is drunk against bilharzia[]. Ash of the burned rhizome is eaten with food by women as contraceptive[].

The macerated leaves are applied as a poultice on burns[].

An infusion of the plant is used to treat skin diseases[].

Other Uses

After soaking the leaves for some hours, the extracted liquid is used as a hair shampoo[].

Propagation

Seed -

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