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Photo: Chandresh Dhulia

Common name: Kasturi Kamal Hindi: Kasturi Kamal Nepali: Kapase phool Botanical name: Saussurea gossypiphora Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family) Kasturi kamal plant looks like a wooly snow-ball. It is a densely white- or grey-wooly more or less globular high altitude plant. Stem 10-20 sm, stout, hollow, enlarged clubshaped and densely leafy above, base covered with black shining leaf bases. Leaves linear, coarsely toothed or lobed, embedded in dense wooly hairs. Flower-heads purple, cylindrical 1.3-2 cm long, deeply embedded in woolly hairs and densely clustered at the top of the stem. Kasturi kamal is native to the Himalayas, and found at altitudes of 4300-5600 m. Medicinal uses: The wool of this herb is applied to cuts, where it sticks compactly, seals the wound.

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Photo: Shaista Ahmad

Common name: Coffee Senna, coffeeweed, Negro coffee Hindi: Kasunda, Bari kasondi Marathi: ran-takda, kasivda, kasoda, rankasvinda Tamil: Nattam takarai, Payaverai Malayalam: Mattantakara Telugu: Thangedu Kannada: Kolthogache Bengali: Kalkashunda Oriya: Kasundri Urdu: Kasonji Assamese: Hant-thenga Gujarati: Kasundri Sanskrit: Kasamarda, Vimarda, Arimarda Botanical name: Cassia occidentalis Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family) Synonyms: Senna occidentalis Coffee Senna is a smooth annual that can grow up to 2 m tall. The leaves are compound, leaflets, in 4-6 pairs, have a sharp tip. These leaflets are 2-9 cm long and 2-3 cm wide with a distinct gland 3-5 mm from the base of the stalk. Flowers occur in leaf axils. Sepals are green and 6-9 mm long. The petals are yellow and 1-2 cm long. The 6-7 stamens are of two different lengths. The seed pods are dark brown, 8 to 12 cm

long, 7-10 mm wide and curve slightly upward. The seeds are dull brown, 4-5 mm long and flattened on both ends. The seeds can be roasted and made into a coffee-like drink. Medicinal uses: The seed is bitter and has purgative properties. It is also used as a diuretic, liver detoxifier, as a hepato-tonic (balances and strengthens the liver). Further, used in whooping cough and convulsion. Identification credit: Sankara RaoPhotographed in Bangalore & Delhi.

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Photo: Gurcharan Singh

Common name: London Rocket Hindi: khubkaln, asalio, khubkhala Sanskrit: khakasi, khubakala Urdu: khubakalan Botanical name: Sisymbrium irio Family: Brassicaceae (Cauliflower family) London Rocket is an annual herb more than 3 ft tall, with open, slender stem branches. The flowers are small with four pale yellow petals. The basal leaves are broad and often lobed, while the upper leaves are linear in shape and up to four inches long. The fruit is a long narrow cylindrical silique, which stays green when ripe. When dried the fruit has small red oblong seeds. Medicinal uses: London Rocket is used in the Middle East to treat coughs and chest congestion, to relieve rheumatism, to detoxify the liver and spleen, and to reduce swelling and clean wounds. Identification credit: Gurcharan SinghPhotographed in Delhi.

Tell a friend about this flower! Common name: Henbane, Stinking nightshade Hindi: Khurasani ajwain Sanskrit: Parseek yawani Nepali: Khursani jwanu Botanical name: Hyoscyamus niger Family: Solanaceae (Potato family) Henbane is a robust, leafy plant, growing to 1 m tall. The plant is coarsely hairy, sticky and stinks. Basal leaves are elliptic, irregularly lobed, stalked. Stem leaves are stalkless. Flowers are cup-shaped, 2-3 cm across, dull yellow, prominently netted with purple veins, and have a dark purple center. Sepal cup is funnel shaped with triangular pointed sepals. Sepals enlarge and become papery in fruit, and encircle the capsule. Henbane is found in the Himalayas at altitudes of 2100-3300 m. Flowering: May-September. Medicinal uses: Henbane is used in Homoepathic medicine. Identification credit: Navend Photographed in Valley of Flowers & Nanda Devi Reserve, Uttarakhand.

Tell a friend about this flower! Common name: Kariyat, Creat Hindi: Kirayat, Kalpanath Manipuri: Vubati Marathi: Oli-kiryata, Kalpa Tamil: Nilavembu Malayalam: Nelavepu, Kiriyattu Telugu: Nilavembu Kannada: Nelaberu Bengali: Kalmegh Oriya: Bhuinimba Konkani: Vhadlem Kiratyem Urdu: Naine-havandi Assamese: 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 rosepurple 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 AwalePhotographed in Imphal & Nagpur.

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Photo: Prashants Awale

Common name: Yellow Nicker, Gray nicker, nicker seed, bonduc nut, Fever nut, nicker bean Hindi: Kantkarej, Kantikaranja, Kuberakshi Marathi: Sagarlata Tamil: Kalichchikkai Malayalam: Kalanchi Telugu: Gachchakaya Kannada: Gajikekayi Sanskrit: Latakaranjah, Kuberakshi, Kantakikaranjah Botanical name: Caesalpinia bonduc Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family) Synonyms: Caesalpinia crista, Caesalpinia bonducella, Guilandina bonduc Yellow Nicker is a large, thorny, straggling, shrub which behaves like a strong woody climber, taking support of trees. The branches are armed with hooks and straight hard yellow prickles. Leaves are large, double compound, with 7 pairs of pinnae, and each with 3-8 pairs of leaflets with 1-2 small

recurved prickles between them on the underside. Flowers are yellow, in dense long-stalked racemes at the top. Fruits are inflated pods, covered with wiry prickles. Seeds are 1-2 per pod, oblong or globular, hard, grey with a smooth shiny surface. The hard and shiny seeds are green, turning grey.They are used for jewellery. Medicinal uses: Fruits are tonic and antipyretic. Seeds yield a fatty oil used as a cosmetic and for discharges from the ear. Leaves and bark are febrifuge. Identification credit: Prashant Awale Photographed at Dighave village, near Dhule, Maharashtra.

Tell a friend about this flower! Common name: Bandicoot Berry Hindi: Kukur jihwa Manipuri: Koknal Marathi: Karkani Tamil: Nalava, Ottannalam Malayalam: Nakku Telugu: Amkador Kannada: Gadhapatri Bengali: Kurkur Assamese: Ahina Sanskrit: Chatri Botanical name: Leea indica Family: Leeaceae (Leea family) Bandicoot Berry is a shrub with straight branches. The leaves are double compound or triple compound, 90-120 cm long. The leaflets are extremely variable in size and shape. The flowers are greenish-white. The fruit is small. It is found in India to Indo-China, the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. Medicinal uses: A decoction of the root is given in colic, is cooling and relieves thirst. In Goa, the root is much used in diarrheal and chronic dysentery. The roasted leaves are applied to the head in vertigo.

Tell a friend about this flower! Common name: Opium Poppy, Afim (Hindi) Botanical name: Papaver somniferum Family: Papaveraceae (poppy family) Poppy is an annual herb native to Southeastern Europe and western Asia. Also known as opium poppy, the species is cultivated extensively in many countries, including Iran, Turkey, Holland, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, India, Canada, and many Asian and Central and South American countries. Reaching a height of 1.2 meters, the erect plant can have white, pink, red, or purple flowers. Seeds range in color from white to a slate shade that is called blue in commercial classifications. A latex containing several important alkaloids is obtained from immature seed capsules one to three weeks after flowering. Incisions are made in the walls of the green seed pods, and the milky exudation is collected and dried. Opium and the isoquinoline alkaloids morphine, codeine, noscapine, papaverine, and thebaine are isolated from the dried material. The poppy seeds and fixed oil that can be expressed from the seed are not narcotic, because they

develop after the capsule has lost the opium-yielding potential. Medicinal uses: Poppy is one of the most important medicinal plants. Traditionally, the dry opium was considered an astringent, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, diaphoretic, expectorant, hypnotic, narcotic, and sedative. Poppy has been used against toothaches and coughs. The ability of opium from poppy to serve as an analgesic is well known. Opium and derivatives of opium are used in the pharmaceutical industry as narcotic analgesics, hypnotics, and sedatives. Opium and the drugs derived from opium are addictive and can have toxicological effects.Photographed in Nainital

Tell a friend about this flower! Common name: Blistering Ammannia, Acrid weed, Monarch redstem, Tooth cup Hindi: Aginbuti, Ban mirich, Dadmari, Jungli mehendi Marathi: aginbuti, bharajambhula, dadmari Tamil: kal-l-uruvi Malayalam: kallur vanchi, nirumelneruppu Kannada: kaadugida Bengali: banmarich Konkani: dadmaria Sanskrit: agnigarbha, brahmasoma, kshetrabhusha, kshetravashini, mahasyama,

pasanabheda Nepali: ambar Botanical name: Ammannia baccifera Family: Lythraceae (Crape Myrtle family) Synonyms: Ammannia vescicatoria, Ammannia aegyptiaca Blistering Ammannia is an erect, branched, smooth, slender, annual herb, found in open, damp, waste places. It is more or

less purplish herb 10-50 cm in height, with somewhat 4-angled stems. The leaves are narrow-oblong, oblanceshaped, or narrowly elliptic, about 3.5 cm long - those on the branches very numerous, small, and 1-1.5 cm long with narrowed base and pointed or somewhat rounded tip. The flowers are small, about 1.2 mm long, greenish or purplish, and borne in dense clusters in leaf axils. The capsules are nearly spherical, depressed, about 1.2 mm in diameter, purple. The seeds are black. The common name comes from the fact that the leaves are exceedingly acrid, irritant, and vesicant, and are being used by the village-folk to raise blisters, being applied to the skin for half an hour or a little longer. Medicinal uses: 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. Identification credit: Dinesh Photographed at Vaghbil, Thane, Maharashtra. Valke

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Photo: Gurcharan Singh

Common name: Ajwain Bengali:

Jowan Gujarati:

Yavano Hindi: , Ajwain Kannada: ajamoola, oma, omu, ajamoda Marathi: Ova Nepali: Javano Sanskrit: Ajamoda, Ajamodika, dipyaka, yavani, yamanika Tamil: Omam Telugu: omaan, vamu Urdu: Ajwain Botanical name: Trachyspermum ammi Family: Apiaceae (Carrot family) Synonyms: Sison ammi, Trachyspermum copticum, Carum ajowan Ajwain is an erect, hairless or minutely pubescent, branched annual herb. The stems are grooved. the leaves are rather distant, 2-3-pinnately divided in narrow linear segments. Flowers are borne in terminal or seemingly-lateral stalked, compound umbels, white and small. The fruits are ovoid,

aromatic, greyish brown. The mericarps, which are the components of the fruit, are compressed, with distinct ridges and tubercular surface, 1-seeded. This is what is used as the spice Ajwain, in cooking. Medicinal uses: Ajwain is also traditionally known as a digestive aid, relieves abdominal discomfort due to indigestion and antiseptic. Identification credit: Gurcharan SinghPhotographed in Delhi.

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Photo: Prashant Awale

Common name: Toothache Plant, Para cress Hindi: Akarkar, Pipulka Marathi: Pipulka, Akarkara Kannada: Hemmugalu Assamese: Pirazha Botanical name: Acmella oleracea Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family) Synonyms: Spilanthes acmella, Spilanthes oleracea Toothache Plant or "Paracress" is a flowering herb. Its leaves and flower heads contain an analgesic agent that may be used to numb toothaches. It is grown as an ornamental (and occasionally as a medicinal) in various parts of the world. The stems are prostrate or erect, often reddish, hairless. Leaves are broadly ovate to triangular, 511 cm long, 48 cm wide, margins toothed, tip sharp. Flower-heads arise singly, elongated-conical, containing primarily disc florets, 12.4 cm long, 1.11.7 cm in diameter. Disc florets are many, yellow to orange, 2.73.3 mm long. Achenes are black, 22.5 mm long. Eating Toothache Plant is a memorable experience. The leaf

has a smell similar to any green leafy vegetable. The taste, however, is somewhat reminiscent of Echinacea, but lacking the bitter and sometimes nauseating element of that medicinal. First, a strong, spicy warmth spreads outward across one's tongue, turning into a prickling sensation. With this the salivary glands leap into action, pumping out quantities of saliva. As the prickling spreads, it mellows into an acidic (slightly metallic) sharpness accompanied by tingling, and then numbness. The numbness fades after a time (two to twenty minutes, depending on the person and amount eaten), and the pungent aftertaste may linger for an hour or more. Medicinal uses: The leaves and flower heads contain analgesic, antifungal, anthelminthic, and antibacterial agents, but some of the compounds are destroyed by desiccation or freezing. Identification Photographed in Garden of Five Senses, Delhi & Maharashtra. credit: Akramul Hoque & Shaista Ahmad

Tell a friend about this flower! Common name: Flax, Common flax, Flaxseed, Linseed Hindi: Alsi Tamil: Ali Telugu: Madanginja, Ullusulu Bengali: Atasi Sanskrit: Atasi Botanical name: Linum usitatissimum Family: Linaceae (Linseed family) Flax is a cool temperate annual herb with erect, slender stems, 80-120 cm tall. A cultivated plant in closely spaced field conditions it has little branching except at the apex. Leaves are alternate, lance-like and greyish-green with 3 veins. Flowers have five, pale blue petals in a cluster. The sepals are lancelike and nearly as long as the pointed fruit. The fruit are spherical capsules. The seeds are oval, somewhat flattened, 46mm long and are pale to dark brown and shiny. Flax is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India. It was extensively cultivated in ancient Egypt. Flax is grown both for its seed and for its fibres. Interestingly, the species name usitatissimummeans, most useful. Various parts

of the plant have been used to make fabric, dye, paper, medicines, fishing nets and soap. It is also grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, as flax is one of the few plant species capable of producing truly blue flowers (most "blue" flowers are really shades of purple), although not all flax varieties produce blue flowers. In Durga Puja, five flowers are offered to goddes Durga, red China Rose, Red Oleander, Lotus, Aparajita and Atasi (Flax). Medicinal uses: In Ayurveda, Flax is used internally in habitual constipation, functional disorders of the colon resulting from the misuse of laxatives and irritable colon, as a demulcent preparation in gastritis and enteritis. Externally, the powdered seeds or the press-cake are used as an emollient, in poultices for boils, carbuncles and other skin afflictions. Used in Soothing Body Lotion for dry skin.