Distribution and Habitat:  A native of Brazil now found throughout India.

Botany:  A profusely branching prostrate under shrub up to 90-120 cm in height with a few ascending branches. 

• Leaves: Simple, opposite, sub- sessile, lanceolate, 3-nerved, acuminate, subentire and glabrous.
• Flowers: Slaty blue,  all tubular in few headed corymbs, corollas all equal, regular, tubular, tube slender, anthers appendaged, base obtuse, style-arms long, obtuse.
• Fruits: Achenes, truncate, 5- angled with uniseriate pappus hairs.                                                                                                                 

Properties: Antidote, cardiotonic, diuretic, anthelmintic, antidermatic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, stomachic

Chemical constituents: Essential oil from the leaves contain thymohydroquinone dimethyl ether, borneol, isoeugenol, 2-tert-buty-l-4-dimethoxybenzene, β-caryophyllene, δ-elemene, and b-selinene. 

Uses: It is used in epistaxis, cardiac debility, haematemesis, ulcers, scabies, yellow fever, inflammations

Propagation: By seeds and cuttings (tip or middle portion of stem). 

Planting: Planted in the field at a spacing of 30 cm X 30 cm.