11/08/2025
Everyone always ask what’s that plant!
If you go to our website you’ll see it in our premium section for medical herbs.
[Info: from book]
SPILANTHES (AKA Toothache Plant, Buzz Button)
Tropical perennial, temperate annual, with an ancestry predating the splitting of the continents.
Spilanthes
resides in both Africa and South America. It is possible that the various ecotypes evolved from a single ancester.
This would have looked much like our monocolor Acmella alba. The bicolored Acmella oleracea entered the scene more recently, evolving in Brazil, migrating north. On the other side of the world, the discovery of something as divergent as the tiny Kenyan spilanthes (Acmella calirrhiza) opened up my mind. One thing all species hold in common is their ability to cause a buzzing alkylamide reaction. Most herbs are not quite so demonstrative of their properties.
Spilanthes, Official Acmella oleracea
(Toothache Plant, Para Cress, Brazil Cress)
This species, originally called “Spilanthes oleracea,” is considered official. The fresh leaves and buds are used as food and in medicinal herb manufacturing.
Tropical perennial native to South America, grown as an annual in the temperate north, flowering bicolored to a height of 14 inches. Hardy in zones 9 to Il, otherwise grown as a 120 day annual. The root system is white, spreading, tapered, rubbery-fibrous, clasping the base of the thick, creeping stem which bears dark green to bronze leaves. Creeps and roots in al the nodes. Makes mounds of showy disk flowers bicolored bright yellow and deep crimson red like the eye of a fish.
These rounded disks eventually dehisce, opening their scales to allow the escape of the flattened, black seeds. The flowers are hermaphroditic, pollinated by honeybees and bumblebees.
The mass of 3,000 seeds is 1 g.
Overview. Spilanthes wants a sunny position in the garden or may be grown in pots. The plant is greedy for nutrients, and performs best when generously manured. Water daily.
