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Botanical name: Lippia alba Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Synonyms: Lantana alba, Lantana cuneatifolia, Lippia obovata Bushy Lippia is a straggling shrub about 4-6 ft
tall, with a close resemblance to
Lantana. Young branches are velvet-hairy,
hairless when mature, branches 4-angular, furrowed, round at nodes.
Leaves are decussate-opposite, lanceshaped-oblong 3-10 x 1.5-3.5 cm
across, base narrowed to pointed, margin sawtoothed, tip pointed,
chartaceous, sparsely velvet-hairy above, silvery velvet-hairy beneath,
lateral veins 5-9 on either side of the midvein, more prominent
beneath. Leaf-stalk are velvet-hairy, slender, about 1 cm long,
exstipulate. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils, in a solitary spike or
cylindric head, flower-cluster-stalk hairy, round, about 0.5-2.5 cm
long. Flowers are stalkless, aromatic, calyx cup-shaped, 2 lobed bracts
lanceshaped, base fused, forming a circular cup, tip 2 toothed, hairy,
velvet-hairy. Flower hypocrateriform, bluish purple, 4 lobed, upper 2
lobes notchedd, lower 2 lobes deflexed, Flower tube narrow, cylindric,
tip ampliate 5 x 1 mm, Stamens are 4, didynamous, filaments hairless,
slender, anthers ovoid or spherical, stigma oblong, Fruit is a drupe,
pear-shaped, about 2 x 1.5 mm hard, bony, separating into 2-seeded
pyrenes. Bushy Lippia is native of South America, naturalized in parts
of India.
Medicinal uses: ![]()
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