Botany:
Description:
· An erect, more or less branched, glabrous, succulent herb, 0.4 to 1.4 m high.
· Leaves: simple or pinnately compound, the leaflets elliptic, crenate, usually about 10 cm long, thick and succulent.
· Flowers: paniculate, pendulous. Calyx brownish or purplish, 3.5 to 4 cm long, cylindric. Corolla about 4 cm long, inflated at the base, then constricted, the exserted parts reddish or purplish, the lobes acuminate. Carpels 4, free or connate at the base, attenuated into long styles; ovules very many. Stamens 8, in 2 series, inserted in the middle of the corolla tube.

Distribution
Widely distributed in thickets and open places.
Also cultivated, flowering December to March.

Parts utilized
Entire plant; use fresh.
May be collected the whole year round.

Properties
Slightly tart tasting,
Cooling, antiphlogistic-analgesic , antidermatosis, antiseptic.

Folkloric uses
· Poultice of pounded fresh material to sprains, burns and eczema.
· Carbuncle, erysipelas.
· Acute conjunctivitis

Availability
Wild-crafted.