Bitterroot Restoration

Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Common name: Juta salpani (Beng.).
Life cycle: Perennial
Native Range:

Desmodium pulchellum is an erect undershrub, 0.5-1.5 m tall. Their leaves are 3-foliate. Leaflets are finely hairy beneath, the middle one being oblong, 8-13 cm long and more than twice as large as the lateral ones. Their flowers are white and about 6 mm long, hidden by large circular green bracts which are 1-1.5 cm in diameter. Their fruit are loments, meaning each seed is dispersed individually enclosed in its segment.

Desmodium pulchellum is used in folk medicine in cold and fever, malaria, excessive menstrual flow. Leaves are applied to ulcers. Decoction of bark is used for diarrhea, eye afflictions. Flowers is used for bile and liver afflictions.