Eswatini's Flora - siSwati Names and Uses
Compiled by Chris Long, © December 2005
SiSwati names and uses, arranged by alphabetically by botanical name:
| Geigeria | |
| burkei | |
| Medicinal: | Bulb for infectious dermatitis. Poisonous for stock. |
| subsp. burkei var. burkei | |
| subsp. burkei var. elata | |
| subsp. valida | |
| Galinsoga | |
| ciliata * (Peruvian daisy) mabuyejazi, | |
| Food: | Food crop |
| parviflora * (Potato weed) mabuyejazi, | |
| Food: | Food crop |
| Gazania | |
| krebsiana subsp. serrulata (Common Gazania) impephotshani, isiphephane, | |
| Honey: | Bees visit Gazanias |
| Medicinal: | Medicinal for sick babies, earache & sterility |
| Food: | Edible flowers |
| Gerbera sanama, | |
| ambigua (Pink & White Gerbera) mabophe, | |
| Medicinal: | Tapeworms & coughs |
| galpinii mabophe, | |
| jamesonii | |
| natalensis | |
| piloselloides (Small Yellow Gerbera) mabophe, umoyawezwe, | |
| Cultural: | Helps a fortune teller get their way very fast. |
| Medicinal: | Tapeworms, earache, headaches, & coughs. |
| viridifolia | |
| Gomphocarpus | |
| fruticosus (Milkweed) , | |
| Cultural: | Take the snuff until sneezing to bring back ancestors. |
| Medicinal: | Root - heart disorders. Powdered leaves & roots for headache snuff. |
| subsp. decipiens | |
| subsp. fruticosus | |
| glaucophyllus umbohlobohlo, | |
| Medicinal: | Medicinal |
| Food: | Edible young leaves. |
| physocarpus (Baboon Cottonbush) lusingalwesalukati, | |
| Household: | Stems for sewing fibre. Tinder for tinder boxes. |
| Medicinal: | Powdered roots and leaves stomach ache, dizzy headache (snuff), warts and TB. |
| Gymnosporia | |
| buxifolia (Common Spike-thorn) sibhubhu, sibhuku, sihlangu, sihlangulesimnyama, | |
| Timber: | Timber. Hard strong useful wood. |
| Cultural: | Magical properties. Good love charm. |
| Firewood: | Firewood |
| Household: | Tool handles & utensils |
| Medicinal: | Medicinal for angina pectoris. Roots for stomach cramps. |
| glaucophylla (Blue Spike Thorn) sihlangu, sihlangwe, sihlangwe simnyama, simnyama, umboyi, | |
| Timber: | Timber |
| Firewood: | Firewood |
| Medicinal: | Snakebite cures. Roots given to pregnant women. |
| heterophylla (Angular-stemmed Spike Thorn) sihlangu (white), sihlangulesimnyama, | |
| Medicinal: | Bark used as snakebite cure. |
| maranguensis | |
| Household: | Used for tool handles |
| markwardii (Spike Thorn) sihlangu, | |
| Medicinal: | Snakebite cures |
| mossambicensis ingqwangame yehlathi, ingqwangane, | |
| nemorosa (White Spotted Spike-thorn) mzubanacansi, sihlangu, | |
| Medicinal: | Spines are medicinal. |
| senegalensis (Red Spike Thorn) sibhubhu, sihlangu (black), sihlangulesimhlophe, | |
| Timber: | Timber |
| Firewood: | Firewood |
| Medicinal: | Roots & bark - wide variety of ailments including mental illness. Leaves yield snakebite cure. Root chips in beer are an aphrodisiac. |
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