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Pigeon Berry
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Pigeon Berry
aturalized Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Pigeon Berry, Blood Berry, Coral berry, Baby Pepper, Rouge plant • Bengali: বনমরিচ Bonmorich • Malayalam: രക്തനെല്ലി Rakthanelli
Botanical name: Rivina humilis    Family: Phytolaccaceae (Pokeweed family)
Synonyms: Rivina laevis, Rivina glabrata, Rivina bengalensis

Pigeon Berry is a small, upright or straggling perennial herb, The rouge plant is variable; the leaves may be smooth to velvety. It grows 40-100 cm tall, rarely taller. The plant does best in shady locations and blooms most of the year. The tiny pale pink-white flowers give rise to brilliant orange or red berries. It is unique in that it is covered with small white and pink flowers, green and red berries, and red and green foliage at the same time. Although the berries are considered toxic to humans, birds find them irresistible. The plant is recommended to attract birds to the garden. Pigeon Berry is grown as a houseplant. Juice made from the berries has been used as a dye for fabrics and cosmetics, and as an ink. The berries contain a pigment known as rivianin or rivinianin, very similar to betanin, the pigment found in beetroot (Beta vulgaris). The fruit and pods are used for colouring fabrics in Cape Verde. Pigeon Berry is native to the Americas. The plant is now pantropical and often considered a weed outside the Americas.
Medicinal uses: In Mexico, the leaves were employed to treat wounds. The plant has been used as a folk medicine to treat colds, diarrhoea, difficult urination, flatulence, gonorrhoea, jaundice and ovarian pain.

Identification credit: Akramul Hoque, Dinesh Valke Photographed in cultivation in Mumbai & Imphal.

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