Cockroach plant

‘Cockroach plant’, my three-year old calls it. And while I have not yet been able to figure out how he arrived at that name, he could not have chosen a more appropriate one.

That first day at the Nursery, a lady told me she was buying the ‘ajwain’ plant because the leaves when heated and held against the forehead help fight cough and cold in infants. I bought the larger pot rather than the smaller, because I thought it would get denuded in no time at all.

How wrong I was!

The plant is a survivor of there ever is one. Even the tiniest cutting when stuck into the soil puts out roots, and flourishes. Within a year, I was giving out baby plants to anyone who as much as commented on the plant, and now, there isn’t a single pot on my bedroom window that hasn’t been taken over by the plant.

Other plants sulk when pigeons peck at them- these take it as an opportunity to procreate. Unable to bear the strong aroma, birds drop the stalks they have bitten off, and new plants spring up where the stalks fall.

Cockroach plants indeed!!!