Porcupine flower (Barleria prionitis)

Landep or porcupine flower (Barleria prionitis) is a species of plant in the Acanthaceae, shrub, branched, up to 1.8 meters high, lower leaf axils have spines 1-2 cm long, stems and branches terete, smooth, lenticels and glabrous.

B. prionitis has elliptical to ovate leaves, 4-10.5 cm long, 1.8-5.5 cm wide, both surfaces pubescent when young but soon become glabrous.

Flowers are golden yellow, clustered in the axils of the upper leaves or in the bracts. Apical spinous calyx lobes and crown are yellowish to orange in color.

Porcupine flower grows on forest floors, meadows, plantations, roadsides, shrubs and dry places with elevations up to 600 meters.

This plant is used in traditional medicine to treat whooping cough and tuberculosis, infected wounds, toothache, ulcers and swollen glands, rheumatism and prevent maceration.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Subfamily: Acanthoideae
Tribe: Barlerieae
Genus: Barleria
Species: Barleria prionitis
Subspecies: Barleria prionites ssp. strigulosa, Barleria prionitis ssp. prionitis, Barleria prionitis ssp. prionitoides
Variety: Barleria prionitis var. diacantha

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