Ammannia baccifera

• Botanical Name : Ammannia baccifera L.
• Synonyms : Ammannia verticillata Boiss.
• Common Name : Blistering Ammannia, Tooth Cup, Aganbuti, Jalagio
• Plant Family : Lythraceae
• Plant Form : Herb
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park, Ayurvedic Udyan

About Ammannia baccifera Plant :

• Habit : Annual herbs, 30 - 75cm tall.
• Stem : Quadriangular
• Leaves : 0.5 - 7 x 0.2 - 1.5 cm, opposite, oblong, linear - oblong, linear - lanceolate or narrowly elliptic - lanceolate, glabrous, sessile or subsessile.
• Inflorescence : Flowers in axillary clusters or whorls of short cymes.
• Flowers :
  • Small, reddish or purplish, and borne in dense clusters in leaf axils.
  • Calyx - tube globose teeth 4 - 5, triangular, acute.
  • Petals 0 or very small.
  • Stamens 2 - 8, inserted in the middle of the calyx tube.
  • Ovary superior, style exserted, stigma capitate.
• Fruit : Capsules membranous, depressed, globose, minute, red glabrous.
• Seeds : Minute, brown, obovate.
• Flowering and Fruiting time : Almost throughout the year.
• Significance :
  • The plant has a strong smell.
  • The leaves are used to raise blisters, bitter and appetizer.
  • The leaves or the ashes of the plant, mixed with oil, are applied to cure herpetic eruptions.
  • The fresh, bruised leaves have been used in skin diseases as a rubefacient and as an external remedy for ringworm and parasitic skin affection.