Achyranthes aspera
Species of plant
- 1 min read
- 3 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Invasive species, Traditional medicine and Hormone
Description
- Habit: a wild, perennial, erect herb.
- Stem: herbaceous but woody below, erect, branched, cylindrical, solid, angular, hairy, longitudinally striated, nodes and internodes are prominent, green but violet or pink at nodes.
- Leaves: ramal and cauline, simple, exstipulate, opposite decussate, petiolate, ovate or obovate, entire, acute or acuminate, hairy all over, unicostate reticulate.
- Inflorescence: a spike with reflexed flowers arranged on long peduncle.
- Flowers: bracteate, bracteolate, bracteoles two, shorter than perianth, dry, membranous and persistent, sessile, complete, hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, pentamerous, hypogynous, small, spinescent, green.
- Bracts: ovate, persistent, awned.
- Perianth: made up of 5 tepals, polyphyllous, imbricate or quincuncial, green, ovate to oblong, persistent.
- Androecium: made up of 10 stamens, out of which 5 are fertile and 5 are scale-like, fimbriated, sterile staminodes, both alternating with each other, fertile stamens are antiphyllous, monadelphous, filaments slightly fused at the base, dithecous, dorsifixed or versatile, introrse.
- Gynoecium: it is bicarpellary, syncarpous, superior, unilocular, ovule one, basal placentation, style single and filiform, stigma capitate.
- Fruits: oblong utricle
- Seeds: endospermic with curved embryo, 2 mm long, oblong black.
- Flowering and Fruiting time: September to April
Sign in to keep reading
2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Uses
The juice of this plant is a potent ingredient for a mixture of wall plaster, according to the Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra, which is a Sanskrit treatise dealing with Śilpaśāstra (Hindu precepts of art and construction).
Traditional medicine
In the Caribbean region during the 20th century, A. aspera was used in traditional medicine as a decoction tea of boiled leaves and roots.
Chemical constituents
Achyranthes aspera contains triterpenoid saponins which possess oleanolic acid as the aglycone. Ecdysterone, an insect moulting hormone, and long chain alcohols are also found in Achyranthes aspera.
More in Plants
Molecular phylogeneticsBranch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differencesMicrometreUnit of length; one millionth of a metrePerennialPlant that lives for more than two yearsDeciduousPlants that shed leaves seasonallyGram-negative bacteriaGroup of bacteria that do not retain the Gram stain used in bacterial differentiationLegumePlants in the family Fabaceae