Sickle Medick is an erect perennial herb with trifoliate leaves, and short rounded stalked clusters of small yellow pea-like flowers, each 8-11 mm long. Leaflets are generally narrow-oblong, 8-10 mm, toothed. Stems are 30-80 cm tall, much branched. Pod is strongly curved in a semi-circle, 1.3-2 cm long, inspiring the common name. Sickle Medick is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to C. Nepal and Temperate Eurasia, at altitudes of 2700-4000 m. Flowering: May-August.
Three-Horned Balsam is an annual, erect herb, 30-80 cm tall, velvet-hairy. Leaves are alternate, evenly distributed along the stem, stalked or nearly stalkless in upper part of stem; leaf-stalk 5-25 mm long; blade herbaceous, broadly lanceshaped to ovate or elliptic, 3-11.5 x 1.5-4.3 cm, base narrowed, margin sawtoothed to rounded toothed-sawtoothed, tip tapering or pointed, rough on both surfaces. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils, with 1-3 (or 4) flowers. Flower-cluster-stalks are 8-15 mm long. Flower-stalks are 1-2 cm long with a bract at the middle. Bracts are narrowly ovate to linear, 3-6 mm long, tip pointed. Flowers are pale yellow or yellow with reddish brown dots, 2.5-3 cm long, 3-3.5 cm deep. Lateral sepals are 2, nearly round, about 1 cm long, with an awn at tip. Lower sepal is pale yellow shaded with dull orange, bucciniform, 1.5-1.8 cm long, 2.0-2.5 cm deep (excluding the spur), abruptly constricted into incurved spur. Spur is curved, 1.5-2.3 cm in overall length. Dorsal petal is pale yellow, 1.2-1.5 mm long, 1.4-1.8 mm wide when flattened, hoodlike, dorsally with a keel-like crest; crest 3-5 mm high. Lateral united petals are pale yellow, sometimes with brownish stripes, 2.5-3.0 cm long; upper lobe oblong to ovate, 1.3-1.5 cm long, 7-10 mm wide, tip slightly retuse to flat; lower lobe ovate to elliptic-ovate, 3-15 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, tip blunt. Stamens are 5, anthers without appendage. Fruit is 3-4 cm long. Flowering: May-September.
Lemon Savory, English lavender, True lavender • Hindi: बन अजवाइन Ban ajwain, Gorakhopan •
Lemon Savory is a low growing shrubby herb. Stems are ascending-erect, unbranched, slender, 10-30 cm, hairless, velvety or hairy. Leaves are narrowly to broadly ovate, thickish-textured, entire, pointed, 5-10 mm long, 3-5 mm broad, with a prominently thickened marginal vein extending all round the leaf. Leaves are gland-dotted below, stalkless or almost so. Verticillasters few-flowered, rather lax. Bracts are small, linear. Flower- stalks are erect-spreading, 1-3 mm. Sepal cup is narrow tubular, 3-4 mm, prominently ribbed, with spreading hairs, teeth slightly unequal, narrow triangular-linear, up to 1.5 mm; tube bearded at throat. Flowers are rose to mauve, 6-7 mm. Upper lip is notched, lower lip longer than upper. Stamens do not protrude out. This species is globally distributed in South Africa, Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma between an altitude range of 1000-3000 m. Within India, it found in tropical and temperate Himalayas from Kashmir to Bhutan and in Punjab, Bihar, N. Circars, western ghats and hills of South India ascending up to 2100 m. Flowering: all year.
This is a much despised plant in the hills of north India due to is very virulent stinging hairs. The plant grows to heights of 3 or 4 feet and is often used as fencing to keep out cattle. The popular hindi name Bichchhoo बिच्छू means scorpion. Indeed the itch produced by the plant, which in milder doses is that of many red ants, and with extensive contact can be like that of bees or scorpion stings, and may need anti-allergic medication. The itch is produced from the formic acid contained in the oil glands under the stinging hairs. Stipules are oblong-ovate, 1-3 cm long. Leaves are elliptic, ovate in outline, with base heart-shaped or flat, margin usually 3, 5, or 7-lobed or, rarely, regularly toothed or sometimes double-toothed at leaf base. Male inflorescences are cyme-like racemes or like panicles, 5-11 cm. Female ones are in distal axils of stem, 10-28 cm, 2.5-3 mm in diameter. There are a few subspecies with differing inflorescences and leaves.
However, the plant itself has medicinal value, and Nettle Tea has been used in Europe for many centuries. The leaves should not be touched with bare hands, but dried or boiled thoroughly in water , are used as diuretic, anti- rheumatic, anti-allergic and also for lactating mothers. The other parts of the plant are also useful for production of oils, biomass and fibre or paper.
Silk cotton tree is a type of native cotton tree with large red flowers. The genus name Salmalia is derived from the sanskrit name shaalmali. Silk cotton trees comprise eight species in the genus Bombax, native to India, tropical southern Asia, northern Australia and tropical Africa. Semul trees bear beautiful red-colored flowers during January to March. The phenomenon paints the whole landscape in an enchanting red hue. The fruit, the size of a ping-pong ball, on maturity appears during March and April. These are full of cotton-like fibrous stuff. It is for the fiber that villagers gather the semul fruit and extract the cotton substance called “kopak”. This substance is used for filling economically priced pillows, quilts, sofas etc. The fruit is cooked and eaten and also pickled. Semul is quite a fast growing tree and can attain a girth of 2 to 3 m, and height about 30 m, in nearly 50 years or so. Its wood, when sawn fresh, is white in color. However, with exposure and passage of time it grows darkish gray. It is as light as 10 to 12 kg, per cubic foot. It is easy to work but not durable anywhere other than under water. So it is popular for construction work, but is very good and prized for manufacture of plywood, match boxes and sticks, scabbards, patterns, moulds, etc. Also for making canoes and light duty boats and or other structures required under water. Bombax species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the leaf-miner Bucculatrix crateracma which feeds exclusively on Bombax ceiba.
Bluebeard, Blue Mist Shrub • Hindi: बन बसुती Ban basuti
Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Bluebeard is an attractive, compact, mounding shrub, 1-3 m tall, with bluish-purple blooms, found in subtropical or outer Himalayas from Pakistan to Bhutan, India and Bangladesh. Leaves are lance-shaped to elliptic, acuminate, 4-10 cm long, 1-2.5 cm broad, crenate-serrate, pubescent, shortly petiolate. Flowers are 1.2-1.3 cm across, purple, blue or mauve, sometimes white with bluish tinge. Bracts are 2-2.5 mm long, linear, acute, velvety. Flower-tube is 1-1.2 cm long, limb 5-lobed, upper 4 oblong, nearly equal with rounded apices, lower slightly larger and broader and darker in colour. Long stamens and style protrude out of the flower. Bluebeard is found in the Himalayas, from Kumaun to Bhutan, at altitudes of 400-2100 m. Flowering: February-May.
Ribwort Plantain is a common weed of cultivated land. The plant is a rosette-forming perennial herb, with leafless, silky, hairy flower stems 10-40 cm tall. The basal leaves are lanceshaped, spreading or erect, scarcely-toothed, with 3-5 strong parallel veins, narrowed to a short stalk. Grouping leaf stalk is deeply furrowed, ending in an oblong inflorescence of many small flowers each with a pointed bract. Each flower can produce up to two seeds. Flowers are 4 mm, calyx green, corolla brownish, 4 bent back lobes with brown midribs. Long white stamens are the most visible part of the flowers. This species is globally distributed in Eurasia, introduced to North America. Within India, it is found in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and West Bengal, at altitudes of 1500-2400 m. Flowering: April-October. Medicinal uses: Leaves and roots used in cough, asthma and other pulmonary diseases; leaves applied to wounds and sores; seeds purgative.
Japanese mazus, Asian mazus • Nepali: ताप्रे झार Taapre Jhaar, मालती झार Maalati Jhaar Botanical name:Mazus pumilus
Family:Mazaceae (Mazus family)
Asian mazus is found growing as a Forb/herb in wet grassland, along streams, trailsides, waste fields, wet places and edge of forests, grassland on mountain slopes. It grows to 15 cm. Basal leaves early deciduous or few to numerous and sometimes rosulate; leaf blade obovate-spatulate to ovate-oblanceolate, 2-6 cm, membranous to papery, base cuneate and decurrent, margin coarsely and irregularly toothed or pinnately parted with 1 or 2 lobules, rarely subentire, apex entire or obscurely and sparsely toothed. Stem leaves opposite or few alternate. Racemes terminal, elongated to apically fascicled, usually 3-20-flowered, lax. Pedicel 3-12 mm. Calyx campanulate, 3-8 mm, enlarged in fruit or not; lobes ovate, almost as long as tube, apex acute. Corolla white, purple, or blue, ca. 1 cm; lower lip middle lobe smaller than lateral lobes, slightly exserted, obovate; upper lip lobes ovate-triangular.
Blue Sage is a woody perennial herb or shrub. Leaves opposite simple, stalked, usually entire, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 10-24 x 4.5-8 cm, basally narrowed, prominently nerved, lateral nerves about 10 pairs, long pointed. Flowers are blue, purple, violet or purplish-white at branch-ends or in leaf-axils, in simple or branched dense spikes. Flower tube is cylindrical, more than twice as long as or equal patent limb lobes, overlapping. Fertile stamens are 2 with narrowly oblong, anthers, protruding out. Sepal-cup is deeply 5-lobed, sepals equal, valvate, almost scarious. Bracts are large, longer than the sepal-cup, neither fringed with hairs nor spinescent, bracteoles smaller than sepals. Blue Sage is found in the subtropical Himalaya, Punjab to Bhutan, Burma, Indo-China, W. China, at altitudes of 200-1200 m. Flowering: February-April.
Multi-Stem Sedum is a perennial herbswith stems 6-13.5 cm long, usually branching at the base. It is often found on shady rocks or walls. Alternately arranged leaves are linear-lanceshaped, pointed, fleshy, hairless 0.8-2.6 cm long, 1-2 mm wide. Flowers are yellow, stalkless, usually subtended by bracts. Flowers are arranged in a branched cluster. Sepals are 4 mm, about as long as the petals. Multi-Stem Sedum is found in the Himalayas at altitudes of 1500-3200 m. Flowering: July-September.
