Justicia pectoralis
The size of the plant and of its bag can vary a little from the photograph — each one grows at its own pace. We keep them as consistent as we can.
Overview
Tilo here is not the European linden: it's this little native herb, growing from Mexico to Paraguay and through the Caribbean, Costa Rica included. Its charm is the smell: the fresh plant is already sweetish, and as it dries the aroma opens into vanilla and cut hay, because the leaf contains coumarin. The species name says everything about what it has always been used for — pectoralis, of the chest — and its tea is one of the best known in tropical America. It's low, flowers in small purple spikes, and gives no trouble.
Culture
- Habit
- Perennial
- Height
- 0.75 m
- Pollinators
- Insects
- Cultivation Status
- Wild
A native herb and an easy one: partial shade or gentle sun, soil with organic matter and steady moisture, never waterlogged. It stays around 75 cm and spreads into a patch, so it covers well. Multiply it from stem cuttings or by dividing the clump, and at 3 or 4 months there's leaf to cut. It lives 5 to 10 years. Plant 1 m apart.
Edible Uses
It isn't a pot or salad plant. What you harvest is the aromatic leaf for an infusion, and that's where its whole reputation lies.
Medicinal
It's one of the most deeply rooted home remedies in the region: an infusion of the leaves is traditionally taken for coughs and colds, and also as a calming tea for nerves and headaches. The crushed leaf has been applied to knocks and bruises.
Traditional uses for information only. Not a substitute for advice from a health professional.
Agroforestry
A support species of the medium stratum with an early secondary cycle, and one of the few plants in the catalog doing three jobs at once in the same square meter: covering the ground under young trees, drawing insects with its flowering, and being harvested for the house. Being native, there's no risk if it spreads. Plant 1 m apart.