• Unusual herb
• Good hanging basket herb
• Makes a sweet tea
• Climber

A vine native to Japan, China and Korea and originally investigated by a Japanese scientist for use as a sweetener in foods who found it had similar properties to ginseng. It was Chinese scientists that found people who drank jiaogulan as a tea in Southern China living longer than the population average and researched the herb for its medicinal properties.

Plant Care

• Height: Climbing/trailing
• Type: Hardy
• Aspect: Sun
• Soil: Any/alkaline
• Flower colour: White
• Flowering period: July – September

This hardy perennial Chinese herb is a climbing vine and grows very quickly. It needs a trellis or similar to scramble up, though it does grow well in a hanging basket where it will trail long leaf stems over the edge. It dies down completely in winter and is an excellent herb for growing in a pot.

Usage

Jiaogulan has a strong sweet pea flavour and adds an interesting flavour to salads and stir fries it makes a very pleasant tasting tea too because of the sweetness. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine where it is used to increase the natural ability of the body to respond to internal and external stressors, commonly called an adaptogen. It acts on processes in the central nervous system, the immune system, the reproductive system and the endocrine system helping to keep them all in balance. However it does have blood thinning properties and shouldnt be taken with other blood thinning medicines.