Chandigarh Forests

Department of Forest & Wildlife
UT Administration
Chandigarh

BARLERIA PRIONITIS Linn.

Division

Angiosperms

Class

Dicotyledons

Subclass

Gamopetalae

Series

Hypogynae

Order

Personales

Family

Acanthaceae

Genus

Barleria

Species

prionitis

Etymology:

Barleria prionitis Linn.

Local/Trade names:

 Kala bansa, Pila bansa

Description:

A glabrous, branched, prickly undershrub with whitish bark. Stems 4-gonous. Leaves 6-15 cm long, 2.5 cm broad, elliptic, acuminate, bristle-tipped, pubescent, base tapering into a 1.5-2.5 cm long petiole. Flowers orange-yellow, often solitary in the lower axils, becoming spicate above. Fruit 1.5 cm long capsules, ovoid-conic, beaked. Seeds 2.

Distribution:

 

Tropical Africa and Asia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, India.

Part used:

 

Whole plant.

Where to see it

Nursery, Medicinal plant garden.

Uses

Juice of the leaves given with honey in catarrhal affections of children. A paste of the roots applied to boils and glandular swellings. Leaves chewed relieve toothache. Roots febrifuge.

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