Lantana camara - Wild sage

❏ Binomial Name : Lantana camara L.

❏ Synonym : Lantana aculeata,Camara vulgaris

❏ Family : Verbenaceae

❏ Common Name : Common Lantana,Wild sage

❏ Tamil Name : Unni Chedi

❏ Hindi Name : Caturang

❏ IUCN status: Not Evaluated

Lantana camara Botanical Description

Aggressive bushy shrub about 3-12 tall. Branches 4 angular, armed with densely hirsute, recurved prickles or scabrid. Leaves opposite, simple, lanceolate-ovate, cordate or ovate-oblong, 3-9 x 1.5-6 cm across, base attenuate, cuneate or rounded, margin serrate or crenate, apex acuminate, coarse chartaceous and dark green on the dorsal side, densely resinous-punctate and sparsely pubescent on veins beneath, lateral veins 4-6 on either side of the midrib, Petiole about 0.5-3.5 cm long with inconspicuous prickles, exstipulate. Inflorescence cylindric spike or subumbellate, axillary 1 x 1-1.5 cm, Peduncle slender 3-7 cm long with inconspicuous prickles, bracts oblong or lanceolate, ciliate along the margins, pubescent outside. Flowers sessile, zygomorphic, Calyx copular, subentire, about 4 x 2 mm across, membranous, pubescent. Corolla hypocrateriform, 5 lobed, 2 lipped, orange, pinkish red, purple, scarlet red, lower and midlobes subrotund, lateral lobes obtuse, Corolla tube narrow curved, pubescent. Stamens 4, didynamous, filaments about 1 mm long, anthers yellowish, ovoid about 0.5 mm long, Ovary conical about 1 mm long, style stout about 3 mm long, stigma obliquely subcapitate. Fruit drupe ovoid, about 3-5 mm in diameter, green and fleshy purplish black when ripe. Fl. &Fr.:  throughout the year.

Lantana camara Medicinal uses

❀ The flowers are sweet tasting, mildly cooling and haemostatic

❀ A decoction of the dried flowers is used in the treatment of haemoptysis and pulmonary tuberculosis

❀ A decoction of the bark is used as a treatment for fevers

❀ Leaves used against flu, yellow fever, dysentery, jaundice, coughs. Roots are used for gonorrhea. Wood is used for making toys, also a substitute of Bamboo for making various kinds of furniture providing source of livelihood for many tribes of the forests.

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