Scientific name: Pistia stratiotes L.
Family: Araceae
Synonym: Zala asiatica Lour.
Bengali/Vernacular
name:
Topapana, Tokapana (Bengali); Phena (Noakhali).
Tribal name: Laita-fatoo (Rakhaing).
English name: Water lettuce, Tropical duckweed, Shell-flower.
Description of the plant: A floating, stoloniferous monoecious herb with rosette of leaves and several adventitious roots clothed with plumosely spreading root-hars. Leaves variable in breadth, obovate-cuneate, rounded or retuse at the apex, densely pubescent on both surfaces. Spathe about obliquely campanulate, white, gibbous and closed below, contracted about the middle, dialated and nearly orbicular above.
Plant parts used: Leaf.
Medicinal uses: Leaves are used as poultice in hemorrhoids, tumour
and boils.
Decoction of the leaves is used to treat urination problem.
Leaves mixed with rice and coconut milk, given for dysentery; with rose water and sugar, used for coughs and asthma.
Ash of leaves applied to ringworm of the scalp.
Distribution: All over the country in ponds and ditches.
Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….
