Adenostemma lavenia (L.) Kuntze

Adenostemma lavenia var. lavenia; Adenostemma lavenia var. angustifolium (Arn.) B. P. Uniyal; Adenostemma lavenia var. elatum (D. Don) Hochr.; Adenostemma lavenia var. latifolium (D. Don) Panigrahi; Adenostemma lavenia var. madurense (DC.) G. Panigrahi; Adenostemma lavenia var. microcephalum (DC.) J.Kost.; Adenostemma lavenia var. parviflorum (BI.) Hochr.; Adenostemma lavenia var. reticulatum (DC.) G. Panigrahi; Adenostemma lavenia var. rugosum (DC.) Ram Lal

Flowering & Fruiting: March-January.

Flowering and fruiting : August to March

Perennial herbs, up to 1 m tall; plants glabrous below, viscidly pubescent above. Leaves simple, opposite; petiole 0.5-4 cm, narrowly winged; lamina ca. 2.5-14 x 1.5-7.5 cm, elliptic-lanceolate to elliptic or rhombic-elliptic, or broadly ovate to cordate, rounded or attenuate at base, acute-acuminate at apex, margins serrate; secondary nerves 10-12 pairs. Capitula few, rarely many, small, in a lax or dense corymb or panicle; peduncle 0.8-3 cm, grey-white or ferruginous puberulent; involucre hemispheric, ca. 0.4-0.5 × 0.6-0.8 cm, to 10 mm in diam. at fruiting; phyllaries 2-seriate, green, subequal, narrowly elliptic, thin, submembranous, outer phyllaries mostly connate, sparsely white villous, apex obtuse; corollas ca. 2.5 cm, viscid-glandular, pubescent. Achenes blackish brown when mature, oblanceolate, ca. 4 × 1 mm, glandular, sometimes densely tuberculate, contracted at base, apex obtuse; pappus elements clavate, ca. 4.1 mm, basally connate into a ring, fulvous viscid-glandular.

Herbs, annual, 30-100 cm tall. Stems erect, solitary, rigid, usually divaricately branched in upper part, white puberulent, glabrous in lower part. Leaves remote; basal leaves persistent or withered at anthesis; median leaves large; petiole narrowly winged, 0.5-4 cm; blade elliptic-lanceolate to elliptic or rhombic-elliptic, or broadly ovate to cordate, 4-12 × 2-5 cm, both surfaces sparsely puberulent or glabrescent, usually rather densely hairy on veins, base broadly or narrowly cuneate, margin crenate or incised, serrate, or doubly serrate, apex acute or obtuse; upper and lower leaves smaller, shortly petiolate. Capitula few, rarely many, small, in a lax or dense corymb or panicle; peduncle 0.8-3 cm, gray-white or ferruginous puberulent; involucre hemispheric, 4-5 × 6-8 mm, to 10 mm in diam. at fruiting; phyllaries 2-seriate, green, subequal, narrowly elliptic, thin, submembranous, outer phyllaries mostly connate, sparsely white villous, apex obtuse; corollas ca. 2.5 cm, viscid-glandular, pubescent. Achenes blackish brown when mature, oblanceolate, ca. 4 × 1 mm, glandular, sometimes densely tuberculate, contracted at base, apex obtuse; pappus elements clavate, ca. 4.1 mm, basally connate into a ring, fulvous viscid-glandular. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 20.

Moist places

Watersides, roadsides, forests and thickets on slopes, forest margins; 400-2300 m.

Terrestrial: found in open, wet places along streams, in forest and in thickets, from sea level to an altitude of 1,800 m

Medicinal - used to treat dental problems by Nicobarense