Tephrosia purpurea

• Botanical Name : Tephrosia purpurea (L.) Pers.
• Common Name : Wild Indigo, Fish Poison, Sarpunkho, Ghodakan
• Plant Family : Papilionaceae
• Plant Form : Shrub
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 1, 2, 4, 10, 17, 22, 25-30
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park, Sarita Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra, Aranya Van

About Tephrosia purpurea Plant :

• Habit : An erect shrub or undershrub, much branched with stems and branches more or less hairy with appressed hairs.
• Leaves :
  • Stipulate, stipules lanceolate, erect or reflexed, hairy.
  • Leaflets 11-21, often 5-17, oblanceolate or fairly broadly obovate, glabrous above, fairly densely hairy beneath.
• Inflorescence : Flowers in lax racemes, which are leaf-opposed and lax.
• Flowers : Calyx 4 mm long, corolla about twice as long as the calyx, deep purple.
• Fruit : Pods slightly curved, mucronate, finally glabrescent. Seeds 5-6.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : September - October
• Significance :
  • The plant is given to purify the blood in cases of boils and eruptions etc.
  • In general the plant acts as a tonic and laxative.