Friday, April 16, 2010

Red Nongmangkha

Common name: Red Nongmangkha • Manipuri: নোঙমাঙখা অঙাঙবা Nongmangkha angangba 
Botanical name: Phlogacanthus pubinervius    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

Red Nongmangkha is an evergreen shrub which is particularly showy in spring with its dense upright spikes of of brick-red, tubular flowers. The shrub grows up to 3 m tall, with 4-angled, grey branches, and drooping leaves. Leaves are inverted lance-shaped, 15-25 cm long, with a base gradually narrowing into the leaf-stalk. Flowers are braod-tubular, curved, 2-2.5 cm long, 2-lipped, with 5 nearly equal petals. Stamens protrude out of the flowers. Sepals are 6-8 mm long, bristly haired, bracts 6-12 mm long. Bracts are prominent when the flowers are in bud. Fruit is a cylindrical 4-angled capsule, to 4 cm long. Red Nongmangkha is found in forests, at altitudes of 200-1700 m, from U.P. to Burma. Flowering: February-March.

Indian Pennywort

Common name: Indian Pennywort, Coinwort, Asiatic coinwort, American coinwort, spadeleaf • Hindi: Brahma manduki ब्रह्म मंडुकी • Malayalam: Kodangal • Kannada: Vondelaga • Tamil: Vallarai • Assamese: Bor-mani-muni • Manipuri: পেৰূক Peruk •Telugu: Saraswataku • Bengali: Bora thulkari • Marathi: Karinga 
Botanical name: Centella asiatica       Family: Apiaceae (Carrot family)

Indian Pennywort is a small creeping herb with shovel shaped leaves emerging alternately in clusters at the stem nodes. The runners lie along the ground and the inch long leaves with their scalloped edges rise above on long reddish petioles. The insignificant greenish- to pinkish-white flowers are borne in dense umbels (clusters in which all the flower stalks arise from the same point) on separate stems in the summer. The seeds are pumpkin-shaped nutlets 0.1-0.2 in long. In India it is revered as a medicinal herb, and particularly in Manipur the full plant is eaten as food like a leafy vegetable. Indian Pennywort appears to have originated in the wetlands of Asia. China, India, and Malaya were probably within its original range. 
Medicinal uses: Indian Pennywort is revered as one of the great multi-purpose miracle herbs of Oriental medicine. It has been in use for thousands of years and has been employed to treat practically every ailment known to man at one time or place or another. The leaf and root extract has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for a long time but has become very popular in the past couple of years for both internal use as well as topical application - although the cosmetic application is relatively new. In Ayurvedic practice it also has a valuable and sought-after Vayasthapana effect - helping to retard the aging process.<>

Sabal palm

Common name: Sabal palm, palmetto palm, cabbage palm • Manipuri: কোনা Kona 
Botanical name: Sabal palmetto      Family: Arecaceae (Palm family)

Cabbage palm is a beautiful and versatile palm, is hence quite popular. It is recognized by its tan-gray, unbranched trunk, and large crown with fanlike leaves. The large leaves have a dull finish and are a medium green, sometimes yellow-green, in color depending on the individual and situation. Each leaf is up to 12 ft long overall including the spineless petioles (leaf stems) which measure about 5-6 ft in length. Leaves emerge directly from the trunk which is often covered with old leaf stem bases that are arranged in an interesting criss-cross pattern. Depending on the individual these may persist to the ground even in very old palms. Cabbage palm grows to a height of 10 - 25 m (32-82 feet), with a stem diameter of approximately 30 - 60 cm. In mid-summer the cabbage palm bears creamy white flowers on a long branched inflorescence that is held completely within the crown. Flowers are followed in late fall or early winter by black and fleshy spherical fruit that is about one third of an inch in diameter. 
Medicinal uses: Roots are cooling, restorative. Juice of plant is diuretic, stimulant, antiphlegmatic, useful in dropsy. Cabbage palm is native to the Americas.

Bird's Head Birthwort

Common name: Bird's Head Birthwort 
Botanical name: Aristolochia ornithocephala    Family: Aristolochiaceae (Birthwort family)

Bird's Head Birthwort is an climbing shrub with large alternate, long stalked leaves which are heart-shaped to kidney-shaped. Stipules are prominently leaf-like. The flowers are singly borne on stalks 8-10 inches long. The flower tube is divided into three parts. The lower pouch-like part contains the style and stamens. The tube is suddenly inflated in the upper quarter into the so-called bird's head. Two expansions are attached to the head which may be termed the beak and the lip. The lip is 6 x 4 inches. Bird's Head Birthwort is native to Brazil, but now cultivated widely. It flowers in the rainy season.
Identification credit: R.K. Nimai Singh

Kariyat, Creat

Common name: Kariyat, Creat • Hindi: Kirayat, Kalpanath • Manipuri: ৱুবতী Vubati •Marathi: Oli-kiryata, Kalpa • Tamil: நீலவெம்பு Nilavembu • Malayalam: Nelavepu, Kiriyattu • Telugu: Nilavembu • Kannada: Nelaberu • Bengali: কলমেঘ Kalmegh • Oriya: Bhuinimba • Konkani: Vhadlem Kiratyem • Urdu: Naine-havandi • Assamese: কলমেঘ Kalmegh • Gujarati: Kariyatu • Sanskrit: Kalmegha, Bhunimba • Mizo: Hnakhapui 
Botanical name: Andrographis paniculata    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)
Synonyms: Justicia paniculata 

Kariyat is an erect annual herb extremely bitter in taste in all parts of the plant. It grows erect to a height of 1-4 ft in moist shady places with smooth leaves and white flowers with rose-purple spots on the petals. Stem dark green, 0.3 - 1.0 m in height, 2-6 mm in diameter, quadrangular with longitudinal furrows and wings on the angles of the younger parts, slightly enlarged at the nodes; leaves glabrous, up to 8.0 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, lanceolate, pinnate; flowers small, in lax spreading axillary and terminal racemes or panicles; capsules linear-oblong, acute at both ends, 1.9 cm x 0.3 cm; seeds numerous, sub quadrate, yellowish brown. 
Medicinal uses: Since ancient times, Kariyat is used as a wonder drug in traditional Siddha and Ayurvedic systems of medicine as well as in tribal medicine in India and some other countries for multiple clinical applications. The therapeutic value of Kalmegh is due to its mechanism of action which is perhaps by enzyme induction. The plant extract exhibits antityphoid and antifungal activities.
Identification credit: Prashant Awale 

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Air Plant

Common name: Air Plant, Donkey Ears, Life Plant, Leaf of Life, Resurrection Plant, Canterbury Bells, Cathedral Bells, Mexican Love Plant, Floppers • Hindi: Amar poi अमर पोई • Malayalam: Elamarunna • Tamil: Runakkalli • Bengali: Kop pata • Urdu: Zakhmhaiyat ज़ख़्महयात • Manipuri: , মনাহিদাক Manahidak 
Botanical name: Kalanchoe pinnata    Family: Crassulaceae (sedum family)
Synonyms: Cotyledon pinnata, Bryophyllum pinnatum

Native Hawaiian plant. Easy to grow just from one leaf set on top of moist soil. Very fast growing, drought tolerant small shrub. Tolerates almost any conditions. Spectacular bloomer. Air Plant grows to about 3-6 feet tall. The erect, thick, succulent stems bear large, fleshy leaves, each with 3 or 5 oval leaflets with round-toothed edges. Young plantlets develop along the margins of the mature leaves. The attractive, drooping blooms are borne on large panicles. The flowers have purple or yellowish-white tinged calyxes and reddish corollas. Kalanchoe is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent flowering plants in the Family Crassulaceae, mainly native to the Old World but with a few species in the New World. These plants are cultivated as ornamental houseplants and rock or "cactus" garden plants. They are popular because of their ease of propagation, low water requirements, and wide variety of flower colors typically borne in clusters well above the vegetative growth. The "Air plant" Kalanchoe pinnata is a curiosity because new individuals develop vegetatively at indents along the leaf, usually after the leaf has broken off the plant and is laying on the ground, where the new plant can take root. 
Medicinal uses: Bahamians call it Life Leaf or Ploppers. In the Bahamas it is mostly used for Asthma or shortness in breath.

African tulip tree

Common name: African tulip tree, Fountaintree • Hindi: Rugtoora रगतूरा• Tamil: Patadi •Bengali: Rudrapalash 
Botanical name: Spathodea campanulata      Family: Bignoniaceae (Jacaranda family)

One of the world's most spectacular flowering trees, African tulip tree is a large upright tree with glossy deep green pinnate leaves and glorious orange scarlet flowers. It may grow to 80 ft on an ideal site, but most specimens are much smaller. The tree has a stout, tapering, somewhat buttressed trunk covered in warty light gray bark. The lateral branches are short and thick. The 1-2 ft long opposite leaves, which emerge a bronzy color, are massed at the ends of the branches. They are composed of 5-19 deeply veined oval leaflets. The horn shaped velvety olive buds appear in upturned whorls at the branch tips. A few at a time, the buds of the lowest tier bend outward and open into big crinkled red orange tuliplike bells with red streaked gold throats, frilly yellow edges, and four brown-anthered stamens in the center. They are followed by 5-10 in green brown fingerlike pods pointing upwards and outwards above the foliage. Each of these pods contains about 500 tissue papery seeds. The tree flowers in spurts all through the growing season, but peak bloom is usually in the spring.

Aeonium

Common name: Aeonium 
Botanical name: Aeonium spp.    Family: Crassulaceae (orpine family)

Aeonium is a succulent plant which branches from near the base, forming clumps with a shape like a branched, ornamental candlestand having several sockets for candles. It has rosettes of leaves on a stable stems. Yellow, star-shaped flowers appear on larger plants, contrasting with the dark leaves. They are borne in conical clusters at the end of one or more stems. After flowering, these stems will die, but new branches will replaced them. Aeonium is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. Aeoniums are native to the Canary Islands, but some are also found at Madeira, in Morocco and in eastern Africa (for example in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia) Low-growing Aeonium species are A. tabuliforme and A. smithii; large species include A. arboreum, A. valverdense and A. holochrysum. They are related to the genera Sempervivum, Greenovia, Aichryson and Monanthes, which is easy to see from their similar flowers. 

African violet

Common name: African violet 
Botanical name: Saintpaulia rupicola      Family: Gesneriaceae (Gloxinia family) 

Saintpaulia is the genus to which the immensely popular "African Violet" belongs. The genus is named after Baron Walter von Saint Paul Illaire, the district commissioner of Tanga province who discovered the plant in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in Africa in 1892 and sent seeds back to his father, an amateur botanist in Germany. African violets grow from 6-15 cm tall and can be anywhere from 6-30 cm wide. The leaves are rounded to oval, 2.5-8.5 cm long with a 2-10 cm petiole, finely hairy, and with a fleshy texture. The flowers are 2-3 cm diameter, with a five-lobed velvety "petals", and grow in clusters of 3-10 or more on slender stalks (peduncles) Flower colour in the wild species varies between violet, purple, pale blue and white. African violets are well adapted to indoor culture, either under lights or on a windowsill. If kept with reasonable humidity and warmth, provided with regular moisture and light fertilization, they will provide very rewarding amounts of bloom.
Photographed in the Yogi Nursery, Delhi.
Identification credit: Nandan Kalbag

Cape Marigold

Common name: Cape Marigold, African Daisy, Namaqualand Daisy, Sun Marigold 
Botanical name: Dimorphotheca sinuata      Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)

African daisies are one of the loveliest garden plants. Selected forms of African daisies are available in a variety of shades such as orange, cream, yellow and salmon. The striking daisy shaped flowers attract butterflies into the garden. Bees love this plant as they collect the nectar from the flowers. African daisy is an annual that grows up to 1 ft tall. The leaves are light green when mature with shallowly lobed margins. They are slender, spoon-shaped, reaching up to 8 cm long. The stems are reddish in colour and are often covered by the masses of leaves around them. African daisy is a particularly attractive species of the genus Dimorphotheca, with remarkably big orange flowers that have orange centres. They need full sun to open and they always face the sun. Around the centre at the bottom of the petals is a narrow, greenish mauve ring. The flowering time is mid-winter to mid-autumn. The flowers are up to 8 cm across and are borne singularly at the tip of each branch. Dimorpotheca = Greek dis (twice) + morphe (shape) + theka (a fruit), referring to the two different kinds of seeds produced by the ray and the disc flowers. 

Aakari Be

Common name: Aakari Bel • Hindi: Aakari bel 
Botanical name: Pentatropis spiralis    Family: Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed family)
Synonyms: Asclepias spiralis, Pentatropis cynanchoides

Aakari Bel is a perennial creeper with tuberous roots. Old branches have rough corky bark. Leaves are 1.2-3.8 cm long, 6-18 cm wide, fleshy, linear, oblong, ovate or elliptic, pointed or blunt, with a sharp point. Leaf stalks are 2.5-13 mm long. Flower clusters are carried on short stalks up to 5 mm long. Flower stalks are much longer, 5-12.5 mm. Sepals are 1.5 mm long. Petals are 8-13 mm long, hairless outside, minutely velvety inside. Petals are much longer than its small-flowered cousin Pentatropis capensis, and curl backwards. The species name spiralis is probably in allusion to this character. Corona lobes are 1.5 mm long. Follicles are 5-7.5 cm x 8 mm. Seeds 4.5 mm long, ovate, flattened, minutely irregularly crenate at the lower end. Flowering: September-December.
Identification credit: Shekhar Marathe

Sahyadri Neanotis

Sahyadri Neanotis:
Common name: Sahyadri Neanotis • Marathi: कपर चांदणी kapar chandani 
Botanical name: Neanotis sahyadrica    Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)

Sahyadri Neanotis is a small annual herb, 20-30 cm tall. Stems are fleshy, white, branched from base. Oppositely arranged lanceshaped leaves are 3-6 cm long, long-pointed, narrowed at base, 8-14 nerved. Leaf stalks are 5-10 mm long. Flowers are borne in 3-5 cm long cymes on short stalk in the axils of upper leaves. Stamens are 4, slender style with two stigmas, protrudes out of the flower.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke & Shrikant Ingalhalikar


A Amaryllis Chico:
  Common name: Amaryllis Chico 
Botanical name: Hippeastrum cybister 'Chico'    Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family)

Amaryllis Chico is a bulbous plant with bulb 5 cm in diameter with a neck developed. Leaves are 2.5-3.2 cm wide, appearing after flowering. Hampe 60 cm, glaucous purple base. Flowers are borne in an umbel of 4-6. Flower-tube is very short with a beard in the throat, long petals are 7.5-10 cm, very narrow, gradually narrowed from base to tip. The 3 lower segments, close to the tube, envelop the base of the stamens and style. Petals are red-green gradually to the extremities, especially the lower segment, almost entirely green. There are variations in color (brown, red, pink, white, green). Stamens are greenish down, sometimes exceeding the petals, about 3 cm. Style is longer than the stamens. Stigma is lobed.
Identification credit: Harangad Singh
 mAmaryllis Chico  aryllis Chico  

Wednesday, April 14, 2010


Blue Fox Tail:
Common name: Blue Fox Tail, Blue Justicia • Bengali: Neel Kantha • Hindi: udajati •Kannada: kappubobbuli, kappukuruni • Malayalam: karinkurinni, kuranta • Marathi: dhakta adulsa, Ranaboli. Ekboli • Sanskrit: nila-sahacharah • Tamil: Nilambari • Telugu: chikatiquratappa, nakkatoka 
Botanical name: Ecbolium linneanum    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)
Synonyms: Justicia ecbolia

Blue Fox Tail is a shrubby plant, with 4-sided flower-spikes at the end of branches. Bracts are oval, entire, mucronate. Leaves are elliptic-oblong, narrowed at both ends, velvety. Flowers are large, greenish blue. Upper lip of the flower is linear, reflexed. Blue Fox Tail is found in Mumbai and Konkan region. 
Medicinal uses: Plant is used in gout and dysuria; decoction of leaves for stricture. Roots are given in jaundice, menorrhagia and rheumatism.

BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS

Crossandra:
Common name: Crossandra, Firecracker Flower • Tamil: கனகாம்பரம் Kanakambaram • Marathi: Aboli आबोली • Konkani: Abuli आबुली 
Botanical name: Crossandra infundibuliformis    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

In South India, Kanakambaram is the favourite flowers of ladies to put in their hair. It competes strongly with jasmine to adorn the south-Indian hair-do's. The crossandra is in the family with Mexican petunias, or ruellias, and the Mississippi Medallion award-winning yellow shrimp plant. This tropical from India and Sri Lanka offers a welcome orange, salmon or yellow to the filtered-light area. In addition to the flowers that are practically non-stop for the entire season, the foliage also offers added interest. The leaves are glossy and most striking. Choose a site with well-drained, fertile soil with perhaps a little morning sun. If you have tight, heavy clay soil, the crossandra will reward you for incorporating 3 to 4 inches of organic matter. As the plant grows, keep it deadheaded and pinched back; it will maintain a bushy shape and keep blooming with each new flush of growth.
 Hophead:
Common name: Hophead, Philippine Violet • Bengali: Vishellakarani 
Botanical name: Barleria lupulina    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

Hophead is a popular medicinal plant distributed in mountains of southern and western India. Shrubbery plant with single dark green leaves, red-brown branches, and flowers that bloom in upright spikes. It is an erect shrub with smooth, hairless stems and leaves. Leaves narrowly obovate, spine-tipped, 3.5-9 cm long, 0.8-1.2 cm wide. Flowers occur in a terminal spike with overlapping bracts which are broadly ovate, 15 mm long, green with purple upper half. Flower consists of a 3m long corolla tube, opening into 1 cm long petals. Longer stamen filaments 2 cm long; shorter stamens fertile. Style is 3 cm long and smooth. 
Medicinal uses: Traditional and therapeutic use is anti-inflammatory for insect bites, herpes simplex use by its fresh leaves, and roots for anti-inflammatory centipede bites.
Striped Philippine Violet:
Common name: Striped Philippine Violet, Crested philippine violet 
Botanical name: Barleria cristata 'Lavender Lace'    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

Striped Philippine Violet is a plant native to Indian and South-East Asia, which grows into a shapely shrub. The trumpet-shaped flowers, 2 inches long, open in clusters at the end of branches. This is an easy-to-grow shrub, about 3 ft height, and the flowers are striped in mauve and white. It is easily propagated from cuttings planted in fall directly in the ground. It requires some sun to flower profusely and occasional pruning to promote bushy growth.
Common Asystasia:

Common name: Common Asystasia, Chinese violet, Coromandel Primrose 
Botanical name: Asystasia intrusa    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family) 

Common Asystasia is a small, branching herb with ovate or ovate-lanceshaped leaves, found along jungle edges and wasteland. Leaves whitish with hint of purple. The flowers are bluish-purple, whitish on the edges, tubular in shape, wth 5-petalled. There are pink forms also. Flowers are borne in racemes at the at the end of branches. Common Asystasia has now become a garden plant, although in some countries it is considered a weed.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke 

Beautiful Flowers


Sea Holly:

Common name: Sea Holly, Holly-leaved Acanthus, Holly Mangrove • Hindi: Hargoza •Marathi: मारांडी Marandi, Nivagur • Tamil: Kaludaimulli • Malayalam: Payinachhulli •Telugu: Alasyakampa • Kannada: Mulluchulli • Bengali: Kentki, Harkuchkanta • Konkani: Moramdo • Sanskrit: Harikusa 
Botanical name: Acanthus ilicifolius    Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

These mangrove plants have leaves which look like the spiny holly leaves. In fact, not all the leaves have the spiny edges that give them their common name. Leaves growing the deep shade can be totally spineless. Unlike some mangrove plants, Sea Holly do not exclude salt at the root level. In fact, their sap is salty and excess salt is secreted through the leaves, to be removed by rain or wind. Sometimes, the salt can be seen as a white crystalline layer on the upper surface. The plant produces a cluster of flowers which appear in neatly organized spikes at branch tips. Flowers have a single large petal large, showy and light violet. When the pods ripen, they explode to propel the seeds up to 2m away. The plants flower gregariously. Flowering: December-May.