Common name: Indian Snakeweed, Blue snakeweed, Nettle-leaved vervain • Hindi: Kariyartharani • Tamil: சீமை நாயுரிவி Seemai nayuruvi • Malayalam: Katapunnuttu, Seemakongini • Kannada: Kariyuttarani
Botanical name: Stachytarpheta indica Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Indian Snakeweed is a terrestrial, annual or perennial, erect subshrub, up to
2 m tall. Taproot white or brown. Stem quadrangular, solid, glabrous or
hairy. Stipules absent. Leaves simple, not lobed or divided, opposite,
stalked, elliptic or ovate, more than 2 cm long/wide, usually airy on both
sides, margin coarsely dentate, apex acute or obtuse, base obtuse our
rounded, pinnately veined. Stalkless blue flowers appear in a slender
terminal spike, petals 5, blue, with white throat. Fruit is a nut.
This plant is similar to the Blue Porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis). Whether the two are same, is not clear.
|Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.|