Brède mafane (Acmella oleracea) - live plant

• A live, rooted plant
• Vegetable-garden and ornamental plant
• Packaging suited to live plants

Acmella oleracea is a low, spreading member of the Asteraceae, with creeping stems that root where they touch the ground. Its flower heads are very recognisable: golden-yellow egg-shaped buds, marked with a dark red eye at the tip, with no visible petals, borne on long stalks.

It is these buds that concentrate the fizzing sensation. The leaves produce it too, but much more gently.

Brède mafane is a central ingredient of romazava, the Malagasy national dish, a broth of meat and leafy greens to which it brings its peppery note and characteristic tingle. It is also found in Brazilian cuisine, where it goes into Amazonian tacacá.

In the kitchen, the leaves are used as a leaf vegetable and the buds are used sparingly: a single one is enough to mark a whole dish.

An easy and generous plant. Sun or partial shade, rich, moist soil, regular watering. It grows quickly and flowers all summer.

It does not survive frost: grow it as an annual, or bring a plant indoors in a pot for the winter. It is very easy to take cuttings from, as the creeping stems are often already rooted.

Why does it tingle?
The flower buds contain spilanthol, a molecule that acts on the nerve endings in the mouth and creates this fizzing and then numbing sensation. The effect is short-lived.

Can you eat the leaves?
Yes, as a leaf vegetable, in the same way as spinach. This is in fact their main use in romazava. The sensation is much milder there than in the buds.

Is it hardy?
No. Grow it as an annual or overwinter a plant in a pot, protected from frost.

Does it flower for long?
All summer and until the first cold spells, producing buds continuously.

Also worth exploring: our aromatic and edible plants and our rare plants.