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This my post for #freewrite Wednesday prompt hummingbird flower by @mariannewest

I had to get this image of a fire bush from a google search the site is called Eat the Weeds, it is too dark outside for me to take a picture of mine.

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It is also called hummingbird flower or bush but did you know it is also an antibiotic or medicine plant. I copied the following from Eat the Weeds.

Hamelia patens: Edible pharmaceutical
The Firebush is probably one of the most commonly planted unknown edibles. They are usually arranged in the landscape to attract butterflies and migratory or resident hummingbirds. However the fruit is edible — with precautions — and the plant has a long history of medicinal and industrial uses.


Red berries ripen to black. Photo by Green Deane

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It would be difficult to make a better consumer lawn shrub than the Firebush. It is showy, fast-growing, evergreen, stays small, attracts birds and insects and provides an edible fruit.  It blossoms all year with tubular flowers, reddish-orange or scarlet. Even the stems of the flowers are red. The fruit is a juicy berry with a lot of little seeds. It ripens from green to yellow to red then black.  It can be eaten out of hand — more on that in a moment — made in to a syrup or wine, a particular favorite in Mexico.  It can fruit nearly all year unless damaged by cold. The berry is deceptive raw. It has an initial sweetness and grape-texture that yields to a sticky, lingering, slightly bitter aftertaste in the back of the mouth. Try one first, not a lot. See if you like it. Some people don’t taste that so it might be a genetic trait. Cooking eliminates that aftertaste. 

The Mayans called it, Ix-canan, or “guardian of the forest.” In Belize the Firebush is  used to treat a variety of skin problems including, sores, rashes, wounds, burns, itching, cuts, skin fungus, and insect stings and bites. For topical use they boiling two handful of leaves, stems and flowers in two gallons of water for 10 minutes. Once cool, it is applied liberally to the affected area. This same liquid is drank as a tea to relieve menstrual cramps. The Choco Indians in Panama drink a leaf infusion to treat fever and diarrhea; the Ingano Indians make a leaf infusion for intestinal parasites. Tribes in Venezuela chew on the leaves to lower body temperature to prevent a sun or heat stroke.  In Brazil the root is used as a diuretic, the leaves for scabies and headaches. Cubans use the leaves externally for headaches and sores while a decoction is taken internally for rheumatism. In Mexico it is used externally to stop staunch to flow of blood and heal wounds.


Today my husband was smart and stayed home, me I am not that smart. It was blowing 25 knots out of the southwest and dummy me tried to fish in it. The only place I could fish was on the west shore. I did go around the islands and was ok with there being nothing on them. I headed north staying a couple hundred yards from shore and when I got to the sailboats one skipped, I anchored and was there for about 20 minutes when I caught one, I got it unhooked and threw my rod back out, walked to the back of the boat and the same rod went to jumping, I had another one. I stayed there for an hour and never caught another one. The pickers were so bad I could only use 2 poles so I was not going through to much bait. I moved a few times just blind anchoring and did manage to catch one more.

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