Common name: Purplish Shrub-Mint • Manipuri: ꯁꯡꯕ꯭ꯔꯩ Sangbrei, Shangbrei
Botanical name:Pogostemon purpurascensFamily:Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Purplish Shrub-Mint is an erect or suberect branched herbs, to 20 cm tall, with
strong odour. Stem is 4-angled and hairy. Hairs are long, spreading, and
sometimes glandular. Leaves occur in unequal, opposite pairs. Leaves are elliptic, with serrated margin, narrow tip and wedge-shaped base.
Tiny whitish flowers, 6 mm long, are borne in
elongated spikes. The stalk of the spike is up to 8 cm long. Bracts are 6
mm long, ovate-lanceshaped. Sepal tube is up to 4 mm long, hairy outside.
It has lanceshaped, 3-nerved teeth. Flowers are 2-lipped - tube is narrow,
about 5 mm long. Upper lip is 3-lobed, purplish, and the lower one entire.
Stamens are 4 in number, protruding out. Style is long, slender, with a
2-lobed stigma - lobes are long, slender. In Manipur, leaves and flowers are used in the preparation of a local hair-care lotion.
Purplish Shrub-Mint is found in Western Ghats, NE India and West Himalaya.
Flowering: January-February.
Medicinal uses: Leaves are styptic and used to clean wounds and
for promoting granulation. Roots are used in uterine haemorrhage,
snake-bite and scorpion stings. Leaf juice is given in fever.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke
Photographed at Karnala Bird Sanctuary, Maharashtra.
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The flower labeled Purplish Shrub-Mint is ...