Indian Camphor weed (Pluchea indica)
Sometimes nature invites you to view hidden trinkets by chance. I often saw this plant growing as an evergreen hedge in gardens, but never happened to see its flowers. It was so exciting to spot its flowers, hidden below in the foliage, while picking up a dropped keychain.
Indian Camphor weed (Pluchea indica) is an erect, much-branched, evergreen shrub, growing 1 - 3 m tall. All parts of the plant are softly pubescent and aromatic. It is a hardy fast growing plant, tolerant of rocky soils, swamps and saline or brackish waters.
Its alternate, stalkless or shortly-stalked leaves have papery leaf blades with toothed margins, usually drop-shaped, and 2.5–8 cm long 1–5 cm wide. An aroma is produced when the leaf blades are crushed.
Pink or purplish-pink tubular flowers develop in compact clusters of flower heads (7 mm wide), each having many ray florets and only a few disc florets. Its flower clusters grow on branched shoots, in the leaf axils or at the end of leafy twigs. Its flowers have a cup-like structure of white hairs that are spreading and 3–4 mm long.
The indehiscent fruit (fruit that does not open to release its content when it is ripe) is brown, dry, one-seeded, cylindrical, five-ribbed, and 1 mm long. The seed has a white pappus, that helps in its dispersal by wind.
Its flowers are pollinated by butterflies as well as other insects and is also the preferred local food plant for caterpillars of the moth, Lobesia rhombophora.
Leaves, young shoots and inflorescences, either raw or cooked, are consumed in Java as a side-dish to rice, or as a salad, and sometimes as components of a soup. In Thailand, the leaves are eaten as a flavoring.
Indian camphorweed is commonly used within its native range to treat a wide range of disorders. In traditional medicine, the leaves are considered to be antitussive, diaphoretic, febrifuge, galactagogue and stomachic.
The leaves and stems contain antioxidants and other compounds which have anti-acetylcholinesterase activity. Other compounds with this activity have been used to treat Alzheimer's disease. Further investigation is needed to examine whether Pluchea indica shoots can be effective against Alzheimer's.
The plant contains the compounds β-sitosterol and stigmasterol, which have antidiabetic properties. The β-sitosterol isolated from the root extract can also neutralize the venom of Russell's viper (Daboia russelii) and the monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia).
Scientific name: Pluchea indica (Genus Pluchea, commemorates a French naturalist, N.A. Pluche (1688–1761); the species epithet indica, means from India, referring to the natural distribution of this species)
Common name: Indian Camphor weed, Indian sage, Indian Pluchea, Indian fleabane
Family: Asteraceae
Native Distribution: From India to Southern China, through Southeast Asia to Australia and the Pacific Islands
Pictures by Jyoti Prateek
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