Bitterroot Restoration

Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Common name: Thankuni, Gotu Kola, Takamaniki(Beng.); Indian pennywort(Eng.).
Life cycle: Annual
Native Range: Native to India, Sri Lanka, northern Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, and other parts of Asia.

Centella asiatica is a small herbaceous annual plant. Their stems are slender, creeping stolons, green to reddish green in color, interconnecting one plant to another. It has long-stalked, green, reniform leaves with rounded apices which have smooth texture with palmately netted veins. Their leaves are borne on pericladial petioles, around 2 cm. The rootstock consists of rhizomes, growing vertically down. They are creamish in color and covered with root hairs. Their flowers are pinkish to red in color, born in small, rounded bunches (umbels) near the surface of the soil. The fruit are densely reticulate, distinguishing it from species of Hydrocotyle which have smooth, ribbed or warty fruit.

Centella asiatica is used as a medicinal herb in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional African medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine. It is a mild adaptogen, is mildly antibacterial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcerogenic, anxiolytic, a cerebral tonic, a circulatory stimulant, a diuretic, nervine and vulnerary.