Wild Dagga

Leonotis leonurus

Also known as Lion's Tail, Lion's Ear, Minaret Flower, Wilde Dagga

At a glance

Family

Lamiaceae (the mint family)

Type

Perennial flowering shrub

Parts used

Leaves and flowers, used historically; whole plant grown ornamentally

Size

4 to 6 feet tall and wide, occasionally reaching 8 feet in ideal conditions

Bloom

Bright orange, tufted, tubular flowers stacked in whorls along the stem, late summer through fall

Habitat

Native to the grasslands, rocky slopes, and riverbanks of South Africa

Acquisition

Grow or buy

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Traditionally used for calm

Historic wound and skin care

Beloved by pollinators

Striking garden focal point

Traditional uses

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In its native South Africa, wild dagga has long held a place in Khoikhoi and Xhosa folk medicine, where the leaves and flowers were traditionally brewed or applied for coughs, headaches, fevers, and skin troubles, and the plant was even kept close as a folk remedy for snakebite in the countryside. Its Afrikaans name, dagga, ties it to cannabis, because rural communities traditionally dried and smoked the leaves as a milder, legal substitute when the real thing was scarce or forbidden. That history has followed the plant well past its home range, and today it is better known in most of the world as a dramatic garden shrub than as a household remedy. Because of its psychoactive reputation and the thin research behind it, HerbLens treats wild dagga as a plant to admire and grow rather than one to prepare and take.

How to grow & use it

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The full apothecary for Wild Dagga

Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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Pairs well with

✦Salvia leucantha (Mexican bush sage)
✦Pentas lanceolata
✦Buddleja (butterfly bush)

Substitutes

✦Leonotis nepetifolia (klip dagga), a close annual relative with similar orange whorled blooms

Choose it when

“For the gardener who wants a blaze of orange that hums with bees and sunbirds from midsummer into fall.”

Did you know?

The tufted orange flower whorls, stacked like tiny flames up a tall stem, are exactly what earned this plant its common name lion's tail, and sunbirds in South Africa are famously drawn to them, hovering to sip nectar from each blossom in turn.

Safety

Wild dagga is traditionally dried and smoked for mild psychoactive effects, and its legal status varies by location. Safety and dosing research is thin, so it should be avoided in pregnancy and breastfeeding and kept away from children and pets.