The Lion’s Ear – Klip Dagga, the Christmas candlestick

Another candlestick plant – apart from the Candelabrum Spurge – is the Lion’s Ear. The Lion’s Ear (Leonotis nepetifolia) is also called the Klip Dagga. It is native to Africa and southern India, as well as South America and the West Indies.

The plant grows to 3 metres (almost 10 feet) and has orange-red lipped (tubular) flowers in dense balls. The flowers can also be white or purple.

It is a mint species found along roadsides and fields in high elevation (1,600 metres above sea level) locations in the Rift Valley near Eldoret, Kenya.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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