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Happy Friday! It's #PlantAppreciation day for #BlackBotanistsWeek and I want to shout out the plants I use every day––spices! I'm going to try and identify them all on this thread from left to right. 
Saffron comes from the plant Crocus sativus. The stigma/styles are what create the spice after being dried. It’s the most expensive spice in the world due to how labor intensive it is to harvest as it is hand-picked. It takes about 80 hours to pick about 2lbs (.9kg) of saffron.
Salvia rosmarinus is the first herbs I was able to recognize in my mother’s garden. There are a bunch of different cultivars. The latin translation of this plant is “dew of the sea” because it thrives in Mediterranean like climates and the leaves/flowers/stems are used in cooking
Day 1 of #BlackBotanistsWeek
My name is Mizpah Hoffman and I am a South African botanist who specializes in medicinal plant biology, phytochemistry and ethnobotany.
My name is Mizpah Hoffman and I am a South African botanist who specializes in medicinal plant biology, phytochemistry and ethnobotany.
Growing up the use of plant herbal remedies was a common practice in our household, from preparing Aloe juice with Aloe picked from our backyard, to growing a small mint bush and adding it to rooibos tea. As a child I think I learnt about plants partly through my sense of taste.
I remember seeing Oxalis plants growing everywhere and once tasting its sour leaves. People usually called it 'suurings' where 'suur' is Afrikaans for sour. I now know that the sour taste is due to oxalic acid in the plant which can be toxic in large quantities. #Botany101
