Description

Stalkless Joyweed is an aquatic plant known by several common names, including Matikaduri  in Assamese, ponnanganni (in Tamil), ponnaganti aaku (in Telugu), honnagone (in Kannada), mukunuwenna (in Sinhala), sessile joyweed and dwarf copperleaf. It is used as a vegetable specially in Sri Lanka and some Asian countries.

Characteristics:

Stalkless Joyweed is a perennial herb, often found in and near ponds, canals and reservoirs. It prefers places with constant or periodically high humidity and so may be found in swamps, shallow ditches, and fallow rice fields. A much branched prostrate herb, branches often purplish, frequently rooting at the lower nodes; leaves simple, opposite, somewhat fleshy, lanceolate, oblanceolate or linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, sometimes obscurely denticulate, glabrous, shortly petiolate; flowers small, white, in axillary clusters; fruits compressed obcordate utricles, seeds suborbicular. In Manipur, tender shoots and leaves are eaten cooked with rice along with fermented soyabean. Stalkless Joyweed is found in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 200-2000 m.

Medicinal Uses:

Stems and leaves useful in eye trouble. Decoction is taken with little salt drunk to check vomiting of blood. Shoot with other ingredients used to restore virility. Poultice used for boils. As a herbal medicine, the plant has diuretic, cooling, tonic and laxative properties. It has been used for the treatment of dysuria and haemorrhoids. The plant is also believed to be beneficial for the eyes, and is used as an ingredient in the making of medicinal hair oils and Kajal