Mecardonia procumbens (Mill.) Small

Baby jump up (Mecardonia procumbens) is an annual or perennial herb up to 16 cm tall from the Plantaginaceae family native to the southern United States through Argentina, now considered a trivial weed though known to Mexican herbalists as 'Metatera.' Baby jump up is traditionally used to heal all types of wounds, and is also believed to act as a natural neuro-stimulant.

Found in wet sandy soil along streams at elevations up to 1,160 m asl. This plant is found growing in moist places beside drainage channels, forests, savannas, shrublands, grasslands, wetlands (inland), terrestrial.

• Roots fibrous.
• Stem square shaped and smooth, upright, branching from the base.
• Leaves opposite, hairless, short-stalked or with an indistinct petiole, leaf shape elliptic to ovate, 10-25 x 6-12 mm in size, apex bluntly apical with a serrate margin.
• Flowers bisexual, irregular (zygomorphic), axillary, solitary. Stalk thin, hairless, 4-6 mm long (longer than the fruit, 6-18 mm), bracts 2-4 mm long, linear, mostly entire, located at the base of the flower stalk. Calyx free, with a pointed base, hairless, 5-lobed, 6-10 mm long; 3 outer lobes ovate-oblong, tapering at the tip, blunt at the base, the 2 inner ones shorter, much narrower, linear. Corolla has 2 lips, yellow with a purple line on the upper lip, slightly longer than the calyx; upper lip restricting. Stamens 4, didynamous; anther cells branched. Ovary superior, nearly ovate; filiform shaped, 1.3 mm long, curved at the tip.
• Fruit a narrowly ellipsoid capsule, 2-stalked, hairless, 5-6 mm long, splitting locally and septically from the apex, calyx accrescent, the outer sepal becoming 9 mm long and 5 mm wide.
• Seeds numerous, round shaped, yellow or greenish brown, oblong with a blunt or truncate tip and subblunt base, 0.8 mm long.

Propagation of baby jump up is done generatively using seed.

Information not found. Further research is needed.

The plant acts as a neuro-stimulant and brain stimulant, a poultice for boils and scabs, cuts, wounds, and ringworm.

Informasi tidak ditemukan. Butuh penelusuran lebih lanjut.