Blumea eriantha

Blumea eriantha DC. In Wight, Contrib. 15: 1834; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 3: 266, 1881; Woodrow in JBNHS 11: 648, 1897, Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bombay 2: 22, 1904; Randeria, Blumea 10(1): 273, 1960; Malhotra & Rao, BOBSI 22: 7, 1980; Kamble & Pradhan, Fl. Akola 113, 1988; Almeida, Fl. Savantwadi 221, 1990; Kulkarni. Fl. Sindhudurg Dist. 218, 1988; Naik, Fl. Marathwada 459, 1998; Bole & Almeida, JBNHS 79: 597, 1983; Karthikeyan & Anandkumar, Fl. Yavatmal Dist. 135, 1983; Ugemuge, Fl. Nagpur Dist. 204, 1986.
“Manja-adeca-manjen” Rheede, Hort. Mal. 10: 33, t.1, 1690.

Vernacular name : Nirmudi.

FAMILY: ASTERACEAE

Morphological characters :

Habit: Herb, aromatic, 30 – 40 cm high; strong odour.

Stem: Stem erect, terete, slender, more or less pubescent, dichotomously branched.

Leaves: Leaves simple, alternate, 2.6 x 1.2cm, irregularly apculately toothed, the teeth sometimes alternately long and short especially in the upper leaves, the lower leaves petioled, obovate, sub-obtuse, the upper sessile, elliptic-oblong, acute apex, all silky-villous, exstipulate, reticulate venation.

Inflorescence: Dichotomous cymes, heads 6-8mm across, long, slender silky hairy peduncle; heterogamous, disciform, yellow.

Flower: Bracteate, involucre bracts linear, clothed with long silky hairs, lanceolate, acute, narrow, herbaceous, the outer gradually smaller, imbricate; Receptacle flat, naked glabrous; epigynous, pentamerous.

Outer Floret: Unisexual, female, fertile, multi-seriate, pappus slender, corolla filiform, minutely 2 – 3 toothed.

Disc Floret: Complete, actinomorphic, bisexual, regular, tubular, slender; corolla lobes 5; corolla tube as well as the lobes hairy; gamopetalous, valvate aestivation, pappus slender, usually caduceus.Stamens 5, epipetalous, syngenesious, dithecous, basifixed, anther base sagittate, tails slender. Bicarpellary, syncarpous, inferior ovary, unilocular with 1 ovule on basal placentation, style-arms flattened or almost filiform, somewhat, acute, papillose on the back, rarely connate so as to form one undivided style.

Fruit: Achenes minute, angled with a few hairy angles.

Flowering period: December – March.

Economic uses: Juice of the plant is administered as a carminative and the herb used along with the leaves of Vitx nigundo and Careya arborea for fomentations.