Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Family
Food - Leaves are cookrd and used as a vegetable. Flowers are sucked for their sweet nectar, used as a vegetable or made into a syrup and puddings. A tea is made from the leaves, buds and flowers. Medicine - The stems and flower buds are alterative, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, depurative, diuretic, febrifuge. The plant is also used to reduce blood pressure. The leaf-bearing stem is antibacterial and antiallergic. It is recommended in the treatment of boils, impetigo, urticaria, allergic rhinitis, fever, malaria, erythema, measles, diarrhoea, dysentery, syphilis, rheumatism and lichen tropicus
China
Thrives in scrub, sparse forests, mountain slopes, stony places, roadsides, at an elevation of 800-1500 m.
It is a twining vine able to climb up to 1000 cm high or more in trees.
Stem is reddish brown to light brown when young, usually pubescent. Older stems are brown with peeling bark, and are often hollow on the inside. They can grow up to 1000 cm or more.
Leaves are opposite, simple oval, 3–8 cm long and 2–3 cm broad. The leaves are evergreen in southern regions and semi-evergreen in northern regions.
Flowers are white and turn yellow as they age, tubular, bilabiate and 2.54- 5.08 cm long, borne in solitary or in pairs in an axillary or terminal cluster. They are fragrant and attractive to bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
Fruit is globose dark blue berry 0.5-0.8 cm in diameter containing numerous seeds. The berries are attractive to birds but can be mildly toxic to humans and pets.
Flowering: April – June,
Fruiting: October – November.