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Never-Die
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Never-Die
ative Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Never-Die, flame kalanchoe • Hindi: Bish Kobra, ज़ख़्मेहयात Zakhmihayat • Kannada: ಕುಮುದಗಡ್ಡೆ Kumuda gadde, ಕುಮುದಗೆಡ್ಡೆ Kumuda gedde • Sanskrit: पर्णबीजा Parnabija • Urdu: ज़ख़्मेहयात Zakhme hayat
Botanical name: Kalanchoe integra    Family: Crassulaceae (Sedum family)
Synonyms: Kalanchoe spathulata, Kalanchoe yunnanensis

Never-Die is a fleshy perennial plant which is hairless or glandular-hairy distally. Stems are 1-7 ft long. Leaf blades are obovate, 5-20 cm, margins shallowly and irregularly crenate, tip blunt. Flowers are borne in cymes often lax, compound, glandular-hairy. Flower-stalks are 0.5-2 cm long. Flowers are fragrant, yellow or red-orange, flask-shaped (inflated on lower side), tube 1.5-1.6 cm, petals spreading, 8-10 mm. Sepals are ascending, triangular-lanceolate, 4-10 mm. Never-Die is native to India, China, Japan and many other countries.
Medicinal uses: Never-Die is used in folklore medicine for hypertension and to prevent and treat cerebrovascular disorders like stroke etc. Warmed leaf-sap is a common treatment for ear-ache. In Ghanaian medicine the leaves are deemed to have both purifying and mitigating properties. Boiled leaves are used for asthma, and one leaf soaked in water when taken internally for palpitations acts as a sedative. In Nigeria a leaf-infusion and decoction is taken as a sedative, often in asthma. The whole plant in decoction is administered as an anthelmintic enema; a root-decoction is taken by women in pregnancy as a tonic, and the fresh root is used as a snuff (or is chewed) to treat colds. In Ivory Coast the leaf-sap is used as an antemetic and to calm intercostal and intestinal pain. Leaves are put into cuts to staunch bleeding and are rubbed on feverish infants, while a leaf-decoction is given to pregnant women by enema as a tonic.

Identification credit: Shrikant Ingalhalikar Photographed at Mullayangiri Peak, Karnataka.

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