Harpagophytum procumbens

Harpagophytum procumbens

Family: Pedaliaceae

Common names: Devil’s claw, harpago, grapple plant, wool- and woodspider, duivelsklou, bobbejaandubbeltjie, kloudoring, veldspinnakop.

Devil’s claw is a prostrate, sprawling plant with a stout, perennial rootstock that has a group of secondary storage tubers arising from it. Trailing annual stems bear opposite leaves. These are irregularly 3-5-lobed and greyish green because they are covered in tiny whitish mucilage cells. The flowers are trumpet-shaped and range in color from dark velvety red or purple to pink while the tube base and mouth are yellowish; they can be all yellow, all purple or white.

Sowing instructions: Sow seed in a trench during mid- to late summer. Make the trench 0.2 m deep and up to 0.6 m wide in sand and line it with some mesh such as fly-gauze to prevent the tubers growing too deep. Mix some vermiculite or other water-retaining substance in the bottom 0.15 m of soil to help hold moisture. Sow the seeds onto this at a rate of about 100 g per 1 m row. Then cover the seed with 50 mm of sand and water daily.

Locality: Glen. Harvest: May 2024