Rose of Jericho, Resurrection Plant (Selaginella lepidophylla)
Price range: $4.35 through $15.35
A dried desert plant that unfurls and turns green in water, kept in homes and businesses across Mexico, the American South and beyond for luck, money and blessing. Its water becomes a ready-made wash for the home.
Drop this tight brown fist into a bowl of water and within hours it opens and greens; let it dry and it curls shut again, a cycle it can repeat for years.
Origin & Traditional Use
Selaginella lepidophylla is a spikemoss from the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico and the south-western United States. It survives drought by drying out almost completely and revives when the rains return.
Sold in markets as a curiosity and a house blessing, it is the plant most people in the Americas mean by Rose of Jericho.
Uses by Tradition
Witchcraft & Folk Magick
- Home altar: in Mexican and wider Latin American practice the plant is kept open in a bowl of water, often with coins, and a prayer to the Rose of Jericho is said over it.
- Resting: many keepers let it dry and close for a few days at regular intervals before waking it again.
Hoodoo & Rootwork
- Blessing water: the water it has opened in is changed weekly, and the old water is sprinkled around the home or business, especially at the doors, for luck and money.
- Floor wash: add that water to a bucket for a blessing wash of floors and front steps.
A Simple Working
- Set out a shallow bowl, fresh water, a few coins and a white chime candle.
- Place the rose in the bowl and add enough water to cover its base, then drop in the coins.
- Light the candle beside it and speak a blessing for the household and its income.
- Leave it to open over the next day.
- Each week pour off the water, use it to wipe the front door and sprinkle the corners, then refill the bowl.
- Every few weeks let the plant dry and rest before waking it again.
Pairs Well With
- Coins: the usual companions in the bowl.
- Basil: adds blessing and money to the floor wash.
- White chime candle: for prayer over the bowl.
- Cinnamon: a pinch in the water to warm money work.
Lore & History
The original Rose of Jericho is an unrelated plant, Anastatica hierochuntica, from the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. Christian legend said it bloomed at the Nativity, and in parts of Europe it was set in water during childbirth in the belief that as it opened, so would the birth.
In the Americas the name, and much of the custom, passed to this native desert plant.
What You Receive
Whole dried Rose of Jericho plant (Selaginella lepidophylla), available as a single plant or a pack of 6.
Did You Know?
Despite the name it is neither a rose nor a flowering plant: it is a spikemoss, an ancient lineage that reproduces by spores.
| Weight | N/A |
|---|---|
| Option | 1 flower, 6 pack |
Related products
