Celosia argentea L.


Family: AMARANTHACEAE
Sub-Family: Not available
English Name: Quail Grass
Synonym: Celosia argentea var.argenteaL.
Common Name: Cheruchira, Silver spiked cockcomb
Flowering & Fruiting Period: November-December
Distribution: Cosmopolitan
Habitat: Weed in cultivated areas and wastelands
Uses: Ornamental. Leaves and young shoots – cooked and used as a vegetable. A liquid extract from the leaves and flowers is used as a body wash for convalescents. The leaves are used in the treatment of infected sores, wounds and skin eruptions. The whole plant is used as an antidote for snakebites. The roots are used in the treatment of colic, gonorrhoea and eczema.
Key Characteristics: Annual erect herbs, simple or with many ascending branches. Leaves lanceolate-oblong to narrowly linear, acute to obtuse. Inflorescence a dense many-flowered spike, white to pink, terminal on the stem and branches. Perianth segments narrowly elliptic-oblong, acute to rather blunt, shortly mucronate, margins hyaline. Filaments very delicate, free part subequalling or exceeding the staminal sheath, sinuses rounded with very minute intermediate teeth; anthers and filaments creamy to magenta. Style filiform. Capsule ovoid to globose; seeds lenticular, black, shining, very finely reticulate.