Water Pennywort is a strongly aromatic herb with weak
threadlke stems, and round leaves 0.5-2 cm across. The plant produces
small creamish flowers. Flower clusters are simple and flat-topped or
rounded. There are unnoticeable bracts at the base of each flower and
indistinct sepals. Petals greenish white, about 1.2 mm, with yellow
glands. Styles are 0.6-1 mm, spreading. The leaves are simple,
kidney-shaped to round, with edges scalloped. Leaves are hairless and
often have 5-7 shallow lobes around the edge. Fruit broadly spherical,
greenish yellow when young, covered with purplish stains when mature;
intermediate ribs very prominent. Water Pennywort is found in forests,
slopes, wet valleys, grassy places and stream banks in the Himalayas,
Western Ghats, other parts of India and S. Asia at altitudes of
600-2500 m.
Medicinal uses: Juice of Water Pennywort is
used in the treatment of fevers. A paste made from the plant is applied
externally to wounds and boils. A decoction of the plant is used in the
treatment of abscesses, boils, bruises, cirrhosis, colds, coughs,
hepatitis, hepatoma, influenza, itch, jaundice, sinusitis and sore
throat. It is a Chinese herbal drug for hepatoma.
Identification credit: P.S. Sivaprasad
Photographed in Palakkad, Kerala.
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The flower labeled Water Pennywort is ...