Sickle Bush – 5 Seeds

Sickle Bush (Dichrostachys cinerea) is a spiny, deciduous shrub or small tree that grows up to 7 m high, with a rounded crown, 3 m wide.
The bark is rough, yellow to grey-brown. The leaf stalks are up to 50 mm long and the leaf length varies between 10 and 160 mm. The young twigs are slightly hairy and the spines are hardened branch-lets, ending in a straight, sharp point.

The flowers are 25 to 50 mm long, pendulous spikes that are borne in the leaf axis, singly or in bundles. The pleasant-smelling fluffy flowers are lilac in the upper half and yellow in the lower half. The tree flowers in Spring. Each flower produces a mass of flat, coiled green pods that turn brown and later fall to the ground. Each pod contains a large number of seeds and young pods are curved, resembling sickles. The pods are very nutritious to animals and are eaten by stock and game, including monkeys, rhinoceros and bush pigs.

Common names: Sickle Bush, Princess Earrings, Bell Mimosa, Chinese Lantern Tree, and Kalahari Christmas Tree.

Sickle Bush Medicinal Benefits

The bark, roots, and leaves are used in the treatment of dysentery, headaches, toothaches, elephantiasis, snakebites and scorpion stings, leprosy, syphilis, coughs, epilepsy, gonorrhea, boils, and sore eyes. It can also be used as a contraceptive for women, as laxative, and for massage of fractures.

Growing Sickle Bush

• Place the seeds in hot water, allow them to cool and then soak in water for 24 hours.
• Fill a tray or container with coarse sand or soil that is mixed 1 part soil to 3 parts compost.
• Plant the seeds to a depth equal to their diameter.
• Germination in about 14 days.
• Can be grown in a large container.
• Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil.
• It can grow in semi-shade or full sun.
• It prefers moist soil, but can tolerate drought.