Common name: Head Leucas • Hindi: bishkhapru, deldona, dhurpisag, goma, goma madhupati, gomo, guma • Kannada: dronapushpi • Malayalam: tumba • Marathi: deokhumba, deokumba, kumbha, shetad, shetvad • Sanskrit: chhatraka, chhatrani, chitrak-shupa, chitrakshupa, chitrapathrika • Tamil: peruntumpai, thumbai, tumbay-keere • Telugu: pedda tummi • Urdu: do na i me tog
Botanical name:Leucas cephalotesFamily:Lamiaceae (Mint family) Synonyms: Leucas capitata,
Head Leucas is an annual herb with stems erect,
unbranched or with few branches, 10-50 cm, leafy, hairy with spreading
and adpressed retrorse hairs. Leaves are narrow oblong-elliptic,
cuneate, nearly entire to slightly toothed, up to 8 x 2 cm, with long
and short eglandular hairs denser below. Leaf-stalk on lower leaves is
nearly-absent to about 5 mm. Flowers are borne in 1-2 distant spherical
dense whorls on branches, 2-3.5 cm in diameter, up to 50-flowered.
Bracts are numerous, imbricate, narrow, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate,
equalling calyces, ciliate on margins. Sepal cup is 1.2-1.5 cm,
tubular, slightly curved, clearly nerved, with a slightly oblique
mouth, distinctly hairy at throat, with eglandular and sometimes also
with very short glandular hairs; teeth 10, subequal, shortly
triangular, mucronulate, about 1 mm. Flowers are white, about 1.5 cm,
upper lip bearded; lower lip clearly longer than upper. Nutlets are
narrow oblong, bluntly trigonous, about 3 x 2 mm. Head Leucas is found
in cultivated fields as a weed, especially after a period of rain. It
is collected for use as a leafy vegetable in rural areas. It is found
in Afghanistan, Punjab, Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to Bhutan, at
altitudes of 150-2400 m.
Flowering: July-October.
Medicinal uses:
It is cultivated for its medicinal uses and is readily available in
markets. One of the plant's most common historical uses has been as a
treatment for snakebite. It is also steeped in water which is then used
for bathing and for washing livestock.
Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed at Jim corbett park, Uttarakhand.
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The flower labeled Head Leucas is ...