Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Family
Food - Leaves and young shoots are cooked. Used as a vegetable. An edible oil can be obtained from the seed. Medicine - The flowers and seeds of this plant have properties that can contract tissues (astringent), stop bleeding (haemostatic), treat eye conditions (ophthalmic), kill parasites (parasiticide), and can be applied as a soothing paste (poultice).
Tropical Africa
Thrives in hillsides, field margins, a common weed, at an elevation of 500-1600 m.
It is erect branching annual plant 30-100 cm tall.
Stem is erect, green or red, glabrous, often branched.
Leaves are green, often tinged red, narrow-elliptic or lance-shaped, strongly veined, 5-15 cm long.
Flowers are tiny, packed in dense, silver-white spikes, 10-13 cm long, often above foliage.
Flowering: May – August,
Fruiting: June – October.