Plumbago auriculata
One of South Africa’s most popular indigenous garden plants – exported in fact the world over – the Plumbago, aka Cape Leadwort, is a shrub and scrambling climbing plant that grows rapidly and is exceptionally hardy and, while it carries the most impressive blooms during the summer months it often flowers year-round under suitable conditions. It is a food plant for the larvae of several kinds of butterflies and moths as well as many other kinds of insects, ensuring these are attracted to gardens anywhere this eye-catching plant is propagated, and shier kinds of birds appreciate the dense cover provided by its foliage.
In traditional medicine the Plumbago is considered a cure for headaches, warts and open wounds, and superstitiously believed to ward off lightning if a stick of it is thatched into the roof of a hut.
The Plumbago occurs naturally in the Western and Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal, extending marginally into adjacent provinces and countries.
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