Guizotia abyssinica is a tropical Composite from which varieties with high-fat seeds were bred in Africa very early.
In parts of Africa and Asia, the seeds have long been eaten fried, or made into oil and flour for food.
In Europe, the oil-containing seeds have long been part of birdseed mixes.
Only since a few years the plant is used for green manure in Central Europe. It is sown only after the grain
harvest in July or August, grows quickly up to 2 meters high, and already in September the plant is in flower.
But its seeds do not ripen before winter in normal Central European weather, so no offspring is disturbing the crop growing of the next year.
The tropical plants freeze to death in winter. Guizotia seed is cheap, and its usage saves expensive chemical fertilizer.
That is why Guizotia abyssinica is an ideal green manure plant in Central Europe, with which the farmer has no extra work.
For example, around Kehl in the Upper Rhine Valley in Southwest Germany, this type of green manure has been practiced frequently since about 2020.
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