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Vestia foetida
Also called Chilean Box Thorn, Vestia
Huevil (Vestia foetida) is a monotypic shrub in the nightshade family, native to central and southern Chile. It grows well in temperate gardens where it is frost-hardy but needs shelter from winter winds.
Vestia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae containing the single species Vestia foetida (syn. V. lycioides). Its principal common names in the Mapudungun language of its native Chile are Huevil (pron. "wayfil" and sometimes redoubled Huevilhuevil) and Chuplín. Other Chilean names include Chuplí, Echuelcún and Palqui (negro) (this last being also applied to Cestrum parqui), while an English common name Chilean box thorn has also been coined recently in reference to a certain similarity of the plant to some species in the box thorn / wolfberry genus Lycium (as referenced also in the former specific name lycioides, meaning "Lycium-like"). Vestia foetida is endemic to central and southern Chile, being found in an area stretching from the Valparaíso Region in the north to Chiloé Island (in the Los Lagos Region) in the south.
Although frost-hardy, the plant requires some protection from winter winds. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Like many plants belonging to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, Vestia is poisonous and alkaloidal. A scientific paper of 2005 noted that V. foetida has caused fatalities in sheep, goats and cattle which had browsed its foliage, death being attributable to hepatotoxic compounds present in the plant.
The paper further noted that stock poisoning caused by Vestia resembles closely that caused by Cestrum parqui - another (closely related) Solanaceous plant native to the region (the genera Vestia and Cestrum both belong to tribe Cestreae of the Solanaceae - as does a third genus, Sessea).
A yellow dye has been extracted from the leaves and stems, and infusions of the plant have been used in the folk medicine of Chile (with due recognition of the toxicity of the medication) to treat dysentery and appendicitis.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vestia foetida by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
