Hi, I am back for the 2nd Edition of My Plant For The Week Series. For those who missed out on the maiden edition you can read all about it here. In summary this is what this series is all about:
Each week I will feature a plant of choice which may or may not be in my wife's garden. It could be a plant in my office, in a friend's house or something I saw along the way to somewhere. It's a series I hope can keep you informed of the different plants in my place and uses for them, aside from the aesthetics.
This week my plant of choice is what I would call a pungent beauty. Beauty, we all know what this means. But pungent? What does this mean? The Oxford Languages defines pungent as "having a sharply strong taste or smell." In other words this plant is a beauty but at the same time a stinker (at least to some). Introducing the Garlic Vine or Wisteria Vine with Violet flowers.
They are a close relative to the Trumpet Flower but, as you shall see later, with quite a big difference. They look like Violet bouquets but when they initially bloom their buds first come out in small numbers. See pictures below.
The buds do not come out at the same time. After the first few buds have opened, a few more buds start to appear and so on until they form a bouquet.
And now comes the big difference I was talking about earlier. The Garlic Vine, unlike the Trumpet Flower, has the distinct odor of garlic. I could not believe it until the person who gave us this plant took a leaf, crushed it and asked me to smell it. It really smelled like garlic!
And if it smelled like garlic, then it must have properties of the herb which could benefit us! I immediately looked up Garlic Vine in the internet and found out that this Vine not only has medicinal uses but seasoning uses as well like basil or rosemary. The young leaves can be chopped up and sprinkled over salad or pasta. The more matured leaves and other plant parts like the bark and flower can be used as ingredient for herbal formulas in capsule form to treat various ailments such as arthritis, rheumatism, colds, flu and fever. The Garlic Vine contains several sulphur compounds like alliin and allyl sulphides similar to those in garlic, that the plant parts are analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-rheumatic and anti-pyretic and used for the treatment of the various ailments mentioned earlier.
We used to have only one plant of this but after it flowered I decided to plant more. And it turned out that it is quite easy to grow and propagate. Just from stem cuttings then planting them directly on the soil. It does require a lot of watering so make sure it gets lots of water, morning and evening. Here is a picture of the original plant and the other cuttings which I planted beside it.
In case you are wondering what that red and yellow flower is hanging over the Garlic Vine, well that's for another edition in My Plant Of The Week.
And that's all for now. I hope you find this to your liking and benefit. Do follow me as I feature various plants in my place and learn more about their uses and benefits, aside from the aesthetics. Oh by the way, I titled this post Pungent Beauty. But just between you and me, I actually love the smell and taste of garlic. So for garlic lovers how does Heavenly Pungent Beauty sound?
Have a great day and week ahead! Stay safe and see you next week.
(All photos are mine.)