Christmas Tree Plant is a short-lived perennial, or
possibly sometimes biennial, erect plant that can grow up to 1.2 meter
tall when flowering. The fleshy stem is usually unbranched, it dies
back to a large, underground tuber in dry conditions. The fleshy
ovate-elliptical, pinnately cut, 8-15 cm long, with the lobes distant,
spreading, nearly entire, toothed or somewhat lobed and lanceshaped,
and few. The mid-green leaves are up to 15 cm long. Inflorescence is at
branch-ends and stalked. Flowers are greenish-yellow to light orange,
tubular, up to 1.5 cm long. Sepals are green and lanceshaped. Limb of
the flower is spreading, and about 2 cm in diameter, with lanceshaped
petals. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a
medicine. It is decorative and worthy of horticultural cultivation.
Christmas Tree Plant is found in Tropical east Africa, through the
Arabian Peninsula, South India, Thailand.
Medicinal uses: The leaves are considered
antipruritic, antiseptic, astringent, emollient and styptic. They are
taken internally for the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery, lithiasis
and phthisis. Applied topically, the leaves are said to be good for
cleaning ulcers and allaying inflammation; to stem bleeding on fresh
cuts and abrasions; and as a poultice they are used for purposes such
as relieving venomous insect-bites, applied to the chest to relieve
coughs and colds and on the head to ease a headache. The leaf is
applied in frictions for the relief of itch. They are made into a
lotion for soothing small-pox.
Identification credit: Siddarth Machado
Photographed in Sigur Plateau, Tamil Nadu.
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The flower labeled Christmas Tree Plant is ...