Description

I'm selling over 600 + kinds of seeds ( and also live plants during the warmer months ) so check my other auctions . You are bidding on about 25 CUT LEAF CHASTETREE SEEDS - Vitex negundo heterophylla . One of the more hardier This can be grown as a large, deciduous, multistemmed shrub or small, 10 to 15 feet tall tree, and is noteworthy for its showy, summer display (late springtime in the deep South) of fragrant, upwardly-pointing, terminal panicles of lavender blooms which are quite attractive to butterflies and bees The tree is often planted where honey is marketed to promote excellent honey production. The trunk is gray and blocky and somewhat ornamental. The highly dissected leaves of Cut-leaf Chastetree are shaped like Cut-leaf Japanese Maple and were once believed to have sedative effects. Vitex has the common name "Chastetree" since Athenian women used the leaves in their beds to keep themselves chaste during the feasts of Ceres. Zone : 5 - 11 Height: 10 to 18 feet Spread: 15 to 25 feet Edible parts of : Seed - occasionally used as a condiment, it is a pepper substitute. When washed to remove the bitterness it can be ground into a powder and used as a flour, though it is very much a famine food used only when all else fails. A tea is made from the roots and leaves. Other uses of : Young stems are used in basket making and for making wattles. The leaves are used to repel insects in grain stores. Extracts of the leaves have insecticidal activity. The fresh leaves are burnt with grass as a fumigant against mosquitoes. The plant is grown on slopes to counter land slides. See my store for 600+ seeds , live plants ( during the warmer months ) and over 300+ books on plants and gardening . I add new items every day and combine shipping whenever possible .