Distribution and habitat: Deccan Peninsula, Ceylon, Pegu, Martaban, Ava-Arabia, tropical Africa

Botany: A leaf-shedding branched shrub, 1.2-2.4 m high, all softer parts grayish puberulous. 

• Leaves: Alternate oblong to ovate, more or less round or subacute and 3 or almost 5 nerved at the base, on a slender glabrescent petiole 1.3-2.5 cm long, acuminate to acute or rarely blunt while young, 2.5-5.0 cm long, membranous, roughish above, softly puberulous beneath.
• Flowers: Minute, greenish, clustered, sessile, forming slender, puberulous, sessile spikes arising singly or by 2-3 from above the scars of the fallen leaves, the females at the very base of the spike or in separate small cluster-like few flowered spikes in the axis of the young leaves. Ovary appressed greyish pubescent, the styles simple, many-cleft, about 2-3 times longer than the floral bracts.

Properties: anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant

Chemical constituents: acalyphin , apigenin and kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside

Uses: Leaves are agreeable stomachic in dyspepsia and other ailment  

Propagation: Stem cuttings. Spacing adopted is 100 cm X 60 cm