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Narrowleaf Emilia
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Narrowleaf Emilia
A Native Photo: Thingnam Rajshree
Common name: Narrowleaf Emilia • Chinese: 小一点红 Xiao Yi Dian Hong
Botanical name: Emilia prenanthoidea    Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Synonyms: Emilia angustifolia, Cacalia angustifolia,

Narrowleaf Emilia is an annual herb with stems erect or rising up, 30-90 cm tall, hairless or sparsely hairy. Flower-heads are arranged in branch-end lax corymbs, carried on flower-cluster-stalks 3-10 cm, slender. Florets are red or purple-red; flower about 1 cm, tube slender, limb 5-lobed; lobes lanceshaped, 2-3 mm. Style branches at tip thickened. Involucres is cylindric or narrowly bell-shaped, 6-11 x 2-3 mm; phyllaries 10, oblong, 6-12 × 1-2 mm, shorter than florets, hairless, margin scarious. Achenes cylindric, about 3 mm, hairless, 5-ribbed. Pappus of capillary-like bristles, soft, white. Basal leaves are obovate or obovate-oblong, small, base gradually narrowed into long leaf-stalk, margin entire or laxly toothed, tip blunt. Median leaves are stalkless, below sometimes purplish, above green, oblong or linear-oblong, 5-9 x 1-3 cm, hairless or nearly so, base semi-stem-clasping, arrowshaped or eared, margin wavy-toothed, tip blunt or pointed. Upper leaves linear-lanceshaped, small. Narrowleaf Emilia is found on roadsides on slopes, lax forests, wet places in forests, at altitudes of 500-2000 m, in East Himalaya to SE Asia. Flowering: May-October.
Medicinal uses: Narrowleaf Emilia is a popular medicinal plant among Miao people in Guizhou, China. It has anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties. It is often used as a medication for healing injury, clearing heat and detoxifying, boosting blood circulation and eliminating blood stasis, and lowering inflammation and diuresis.

Identification credit: Tabish, Thingnam Rajshree Photographed in Meghalaya.

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