Botanical Musings Petiveria alliacea

Gully root aka Guinea hen weed aka Anamu

There is so much I could say about this plant. It is one of those that you can smell before you can see. It blends in with its fellow plants and I passed it many days for years on my way in and out of the valley. Although I was always looking for it while walking, it wasn’t until the eve of Carnival in the Forest that Francis Morean, Caribbean ethnobotanist, pointed it out clear as day in my normal path. I knew that the man behind the patch minds chickens, so I perhaps attributed the smell to that. One of its many common names is guinea hen weed and it was given that name thanks to its strong smelling and healing sulfuric compounds reminiscent of a chicken coop.

Check out an excerpt from a small collection of botanical musings I made!