Baby jump up (Mecardonia procumbens)

Baby jump up or yellow-flowered water hyssop (Mecardonia procumbens) is a plant species in the Plantaginaceae, fibrous roots, stems rectangular, smooth, upright and branching from the base, growing on sandy soil, wet, streams and rice fields at elevations up to 1160 meters .

M. procumbens has leaves that sit opposite each other, are hairless and have short or indistinct stalks. The strands are elliptical to ovate, 10–25 mm long, 6–12 mm broad, apically blunt ends and serrated margins.

Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, axillary and solitary. Pedicels thin, hairless, 4-6 mm long, longer than fruit (6-18 mm), bracts 2-4 mm long, linear, mostly intact and located at the base of the peduncle.

Free petals with a sharp base, hairless, 5 lobes, 6-10 mm long. Outer lobe 3 ovate, oblong, attenuated at apex, obtuse at base, 2 inner lobes shorter, much narrower and linear.

The corolla has 2 lips, yellow with a purple stripe on the upper lip, slightly longer than the calyx. The upper lip is limiting. Stamens 4 items and dynamo. Branched anther cells. Superior ovary, almost ovoid, filiform in shape, 1.3 mm long and curved at the apex.

Fruit capsule, narrow ellipsoid, stalked, glabrous, 5-6 mm long, ruptured locally and septically from apex, calyx accrescent, outer sepals being 9 mm long and 5 mm wide. Seeds numerous, round with yellow or greenish brown, oval with a blunt or truncated apex and 0.8 mm long.

This species grows in forests, savannas, scrublands, grasslands, inland and terrestrial wetlands. Plants are used as neuro-stimulants and brain stimulants, poultices and scabs, cuts, wounds and ringworm.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Tribe: Gratioleae
Genus: Mecardonia
Species: Mecardonia procumbens

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