Occurrence (Special Areas) :
Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Indroda Park, Ayurvedic Udyan, Punit Van, Sarita Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra
About Alternanthera sessilis Plant :
Habit : An erect or prostrate herb, 10 - 30 cm tall, rooting at the lower nodes.
Stem : Simple or branched, yellowish - green, deep - green or reddish - purple, shining, quadrangular at first, terete when old, with longitudinal row of hairs on two opposite sides and also with transverse lines of hairs at nodes, internodes 4 - 7 cm long.
Leaves : Sessile or sub - sessile, opposite, 1 - 5 x 0.7 - 1.5 cm, elliptic-oblong, obovate - oblong or oblanceolate, rounded, obtuse or sub - acute at apex, tapering or acute at base, entire along the margins, glabrous or thinly hairy.
Inflorescence : Spikes
Flowers : Small, about 1.5 - 2 mm long, whitish or with a pinkish tinge, in axillary globose condensed spikes, anthers 1 - celled.
Fruit : Utricles 2 mm long, obcordate, deeply emarginated, brownish or straw - coloured, glabrous, falling off with the perianth.
Seeds : 1 - 1.5 mm in diameter, glabrous, ovoid.
Flowering and Fruiting time : Almost throughout the year.
Significance :
It is used as vegetable by poor people.
It is given to women in post - delivery conditions to increase the flow of milk.
