Some Plants And Their Peculiar Uses

1. Boabab tree (Adamsonia) has such a large trunk that in the 1890s, one such hollow tree in Derby, Australia, was used as a prison for convicts! People in west Sudan use the hollow in its trunk to save water in the rainy season. 22 metres high Sunland baobab in Limpopo, South Africa is called "The Big Baobab Pub" as the peple there have built a pub inside its hollow trunk.

2. The sap of Acokanthera and the milky juice of  Pachypodium are used as venom for arrow tips including those used for poaching elephants by traditional bushmen.

A branch of Acokenthera oppositifolia

Abrus precatorius

 3. Abrus precatorius's seeds were used earlier in India to weigh gold. they used a unit called "ratti'. 8 rattis make 1 masha, 12 of which make 1 tola. 1 tola has varying measurements differing from 10-12 grams. The seeds are also a part of jewellery in Trinidad. they use them in bracelets, waist bands, anklets to mention a few mainly to ward off jumbies or evil spirits and "mal-yeux" - the evil eye.

4. People in Nigeria link Sansevieria trifasciata, the snake plant with Ogoun, the Orisha of war, in rituals to remove the evil eye.