5 Athanasia dentata Seeds - Indigenous Evergreen Fynbos Medicinal Herb Shrub

Athanasia dentata Seeds

Attracts Honey Bees

Green and golden is the best way to describe Athanasia dentata. It is a fast-growing, upright, densely leafy shrublet that reaches a height of about 1 to 1.5 m. It has decorative, rich green foliage, the leaves are serrated, recurved and are arranged neatly on the slender branches. The flowers are a bright golden yellow and are carried in showy, flat, honey-scented flowerheads on the ends of the branches during spring to midsummer. To put it in botanical terminology, the flowerhead is a dense terminal compound corymb. Each one consists of 15-20 rounded 'buttons' clustered tightly together at the end of a branch and each 'button' consists of 30-60 tiny yellow flowers clustered tightly together and surrounded by short paper-like bracts. The flowerheads are long-lasting, on the bush and in the vase. Honey bees, solitary bees and butterflies visit the flowerheads, and monkey beetles forage for pollen. Any one of them could be the pollinator. The hard, ridged seeds are ripe about six weeks after flowering. The leaves and stems of most athanasias are rich in bitter resins, which have been widely used by traditional healers and herbalists for various ailments. Athanasias are not readily grazed by livestock or game because they have a bitter taste. Sheep and goats may show symptoms of photo-sensitivity ('dikkopsiekte') when they eat the plant during droughts.