Friday, January 25, 2008

Anamu, a Blessing or a Curse!


This stuff is all over our back yard. The little wispy parts have seeds on them that stick to your clothes and hair on you skin. They also can embed little thorns in your skin. To make matters worse this stuff emits an odor that burns my eyes and nose. It also makes my exposed skin very itchy. This stuff is NASTY! Since I have been doing a lot of weed whacking I have been encountering this stuff more and more. At first I didn't know what was affecting me. About 30 minutes is all I can stand once I start running into this stuff. I literally run to the house and strip off my clothes as fast as possible and hit the shower. It takes a while for the itching to stop. It itches so much. This stuff is supposed to cure cancer and all sorts of other things! Its sold at health food stores and on the Internet. People swear by it. Its one of those medicinal rain forest plants. A search on the Internet brings up thousands of sites. There is even a Wikipiedia entry for it but nothing to get rid of it. I can't stand to disturb it. All I have to do is break one stem and I can smell it. The plant gets to be 3' tall and becomes impenetrable. I should try selling it on the Internet!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! I agree with you, that stuff is nasty! You may have to get a couple of goats to keep that area clean! ;-)

H Jr.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure I've come across anamu at one point, and didn't realize...we just blame all things itchy on Pica Pica! What does the smell of anamu smell like? Is it milky when you break it?

Anonymous said...

Well, I checked with my parents and apparently goats don't even eat anamu.

H Jr.

Anonymous said...

It's supposed to smell like garlic. What ever it smells like it burns my nose and eyes when I chop it up with the weed whacker. It's not milky when you break it.

Monks said...

we just planted some passion fruit too!

Jeff and Katrina Kruse said...

We just found another good nursery in Cabo Rojo. Take a left at the soldier statue off 100 (if you are coming from 2), then a right at the stop sign (you do NOT go into town) and it is on the right - Einida Nursery. We picked up a Canisteel Tree for $5 (egg yolk fruit). Even better than that, they had the fruit there so we got one and are awaiting ripeness! Anamu I don't think smells, it has triangular seeds all lined up for attack that stick to clothes, skin etc and work their way in...katrina