NAME: Desmodium gangeticum

FAMILY NAME: Leguminosae

COMMON NAMES: Shalparni

LOCAL NAMES: Ewe-emo

MORPHOLOGY: Salparni is a sub-erect, diffusely branched undershrub, up to 120-cm tall. Stem is short and woody at base. Leaves are unifoliate, ovate to ovatelanceolate, membranous, and mottled with grey patches and up to 15cm in length. Flowers are purple/white in colour. Pods are thin, flat, curve carrying 6-8 nodes and also bear the hair like structure on them

PART(S): Leaf, root, Whole plant

GENERAL USES: Medicinal

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Tropical Africa, E. Asia - China, Japan, Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia

WHY IS IT GREEN: Astringent, urinary disorder, fever, chest infection, anthelmintic, treat kidney problems, oedema, swellings, chronic fever, coughs, biliousness, diarrhoea and dysentery; or as a sedative for children

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Serves as green manure, weed-controlling ground cover[,cover crop for rubber plantations and for erosion control

FUN FACT: it has a sweet, bitter taste. The sexual reproductive system is hermaphroditic