Alternanthera ficoidea (L.) P.Beauv.

 

Family: Amaranthaceae

Synonym: Achyranthes ficoidea (L.) Lam., Alternanthera polygonoides var. ficoidea (L.) M.Gómez

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Moist open places

Distribution: Tropical America, Introduced in India

Flowering and Fruiting: August

Key identification features: Sanguinarea is a perennial herb, native to South America, and now naturalized in India. Stems are prostrate or erect, moderately branched, hairless below, generally hairy above and in leaf-axils. Leaves are inverted-lancelike or narrowly elliptic. Round or short-cylindrical flower heads lie stalkless in leaf axils

Uses: Edible, Diuretic, anti-pyretic, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and anti- diarrheal agent

Abelmoschus moschatus Medik.

 

Family: Malvaceae

Synonym: Hibiscus abelmoschus var. genuinus Hochr. 

Vernacular name: Kattukasthuri

Habit: Sub-shrubs/herbs

Habitat: Forests slopes and dry places. Grasslands

Distribution: South Asia to Pacific Islands

Flowering & Fruiting: July-December

Key identification features: An undershrub with simple prickly or stellate hairs and palmately lobed or palmilobed leaves. Large yellow flowers in axillary solitary cymes with epicalyx.  Corolla yellow with dark purple, white or pink. Stamens indefinite monadelphous. Fruit capsule. 

Uses: The leaves and flowers are rubbed on scabies and also applied as a poultice on swellings. The leaves are antiinflammatory and febrifuge.

Passiflora foetida L.

 

Family: Passifloraceae

Synonym: Dysosmia foetida (L.) M.Roem. 

Vernacular name: Ammummapazham, Bonchikkaya, Chadayan, Poochapazham, Poodappazham

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Degraded forests and wastelands

Distribution: Native of Tropical America; now naturalised in Indo-malesia, China, and Africa

Flowering and Fruiting: June-December

Key identification features: A vine with densely hispid branchlets. Flowers axillary, often solitary. Fruit berry, subglobose,

Uses: Young leaves and plant tips are edible. Dried leaves are used in tea. Pulp of the ripe fruit is eaten. It is used in treating diseases such as throat infection, giddiness etc.

Mesosphaerum suaveolens (L.) Kuntze

 

Family: Lamiaceae

Synonym: Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit.

Vernacular name: Nattapoochedi

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Degraded moist and dry deciduous forests and wastelands

Flowering & Fruiting: September-February

Distribution: India: Throughout India; South America

Key identification features: American Mint is a rigid annual herb of aggressive nature. It starts its vegetative phase either from perrenating rootstock or seeds, with the onset of monsoon rains. Flowering starts at an early age of 2-3 months. It produces copious blue flowers in small cymes along branch that ends with reduced leaves. Flowers are blue.

Uses: Plant is used as a local seasoning and also used in ethnomedicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, fever, eczema, flatulence, cancers, and headache

Biophytum sensitivum (L.) DC.

 

Scientific name: Biophytum sensitivum (L.) DC.

Family: Oxalidaceae

Synonym: Oxalis sensitiva L.

Vernacular name in Malayalam: Mukkutti

Habit: Small, annual herb with a slender stem and a rosette of pinnately compound leaves at the apex.

Habitat: Commonly found in moist, disturbed areas such as roadsides, fields, and open forests.

Distribution: Native to tropical and subtropical Asia; widely distributed in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.

Flowering and Fruiting: Flowers from August to January; produces small, yellow, five-petaled flowers in umbels; fruits are capsules containing several seeds.

Key identification features: Slender stem with a rosette of compound leaves; leaflets fold inward upon touch; small, yellow flowers arranged in umbels.

Uses: Traditionally used in folk medicine for treating wounds, ulcers, diabetes, respiratory ailments, and inflammatory conditions.

Biophytum reinwardtii (Zucc.) Klotzsch

 

Family: Oxalidaceae

Synonym: Oxalis gracilenta Kurz.

Vernacular name: Mukkutti, Theendanazhi

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Western Ghats, Evergreen Forests

Distribution: Southeast Asia

Flowering and Fruiting: July-December

Key identification features: This herb has a simple rosette of leaves at the top of the stem. When touched, the leaflets exhibit sensitivity, closing together upwards. The leaflets themselves are either subsessile The herb produces flowers in peduncled pseudumbels, The petals are free  and later adhere for two-thirds of their length above the free bases. Petal colors can range from white to creamy yellow or pinkish-mauve, with a yellow base. Fruit is a capsule.

Uses: treat ailments such as fever, pain, digestive disorders, respiratory conditions, and skin ailments.

Cyanotis axillaris (L.) D.Don ex Sweet

 

Family: Commelinaceae

Synonym: Amischophacelus axillaris (L.) R.S.Rao & Kammathy, Commelina axillaris L.

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Degraded deciduous forests and moist places

Distribution: India: Assam, Odisha; Indonesia, Thailand

Flowering and Fruiting: August-December

Key identification features: Fleshy decumbent, glabrous herbs, rooting at lower nodes, often purple-suffused. Leaves  linear, apex acute or acuminate; Inflorescence in axillary cymose clusters, enclosed within the leaf sheath. Corolla blue; Capsule  oblong, apex beaked. Seeds 6, oblong, pitted.

Uses: Edible, Treat boils and ascites