Holostemma Creeper

Common name: Holostemma Creeper • Hindi: Chhirvel • Marathi: Dudruli, Shidodi • Tamil: Palay kirai • Malayalam: Ada kodien • Telugu: Palagurugu • Sanskrit: Jivanti, Arkapushpi


Botanical name: Holostemma ada-kodien Family: Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed family)

Synonyms: Holostemma annulare

Holostemma Creeper is a handsome, extensive, laticiferous, twining shrub with large conspicuous flowers. The bark is deeply cracked. The leaves are ovate to heart-shaped, 5-12 × 2-8 cm, coriaceous, acute, smooth above, and finely pubescent. The flowers are greenish-yellow in color, purplish crimson inside, in lateral cymes. The petals are thick, typical of the milkweed family. Flowers are very fragrant. The central crown is edible. The fruits follicles sub-woody, 6-9 cm long, tapering and green. The roots are pretty long up to a meter or more in length, thick, cylindrical and irregularly twisted. It grows over hedges and in open forests especially on the lower slopes of hills. But its occurance has diminished very much within this range of distribution and hence it is considered endangered. Flowering: April-September.

Medicinal uses: Mainly the roots and the whole plant are used for medicinal purposes. Externally the paste of its leaves and roots alleviate oedema due to vitiation of pitta dosa. The herb is beneficial for external use in various skin diseases, wounds and inflammation of the skin.

Green Milkweed Creeper

Common name: Green Milkweed Creeper • Marathi: शॆंडवेल Shendvel, जाती Jati, मारवेल Marvel • Tamil: Perum kahamugan kodi • Malayalam: വട്ടു വല്ലീ Vattu valli • Kannada: Ghara hoovu gida


Botanical name: Cosmostigma racemosum Family: Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed family)

Synonyms: Asclepias racemosa

Green Milkweed Creeper is a twining shrub with watery sap. Stem are hollow within, sparsely hairy when young. Oppositely arranged leaves 7.5-11 x 3.5-5 cm, are broadly ovate, sharp tipped, with a rounded or heart-shaped base. Leaf stalks are 1.5-3 cm long. Small greenish flowers occur incorymb-like or raceme-like; peduncle 1.5-2.5 cm long. Sepals are 1.5 mm long, 5 in number. Flowers flat, wheel-like, 8-10 mm across, with 5 petals and very short tube. Petals are 4 mm long, ovate, yellowish-green with reddish-brown speckles. Stamens 5; filaments united; anthers 2-celled; Carpels 2, free ; style short, apex 5-angled. Flowering: July.

Medicinal uses: The leaves of this woody climber are used in Indian traditional medicine to cure ulcerous sores.

Bird's Head Birthwort

Common name: Bird's Head Birthwort


Botanical name: Aristolochia ornithocephala Family: Aristolochiaceae (Birthwort family)

Bird's Head Birthwort is an climbing shrub with large alternate, long stalked leaves which are heart-shaped to kidney-shaped. Stipules are prominently leaf-like. The flowers are singly borne on stalks 8-10 inches long. The flower tube is divided into three parts. The lower pouch-like part contains the style and stamens. The tube is suddenly inflated in the upper quarter into the so-called bird's head. Two expansions are attached to the head which may be termed the beak and the lip. The lip is 6 x 4 inches. Bird's Head Birthwort is native to Brazil, but now cultivated widely. It flowers in the rainy season

Hophead (Medicinal Plant)

Common name: Hophead, Philippine Violet • Bengali: Vishellakarani


Botanical name: Barleria lupulina Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

Hophead is a popular medicinal plant distributed in mountains of southern and western India. Shrubbery plant with single dark green leaves, red-brown branches, and flowers that bloom in upright spikes. It is an erect shrub with smooth, hairless stems and leaves. Leaves narrowly obovate, spine-tipped, 3.5-9 cm long, 0.8-1.2 cm wide. Flowers occur in a terminal spike with overlapping bracts which are broadly ovate, 15 mm long, green with purple upper half. Flower consists of a 3m long corolla tube, opening into 1 cm long petals. Longer stamen filaments 2 cm long; shorter stamens fertile. Style is 3 cm long and smooth.

Medicinal uses: Traditional and therapeutic use is anti-inflammatory for insect bites, herpes simplex use by its fresh leaves, and roots for anti-inflammatory centipede bites