Popcorn Lavender

Overview

Native to Mexico, the West Indies and both Central and South America, It is often grown as an ornamental, and as a hedge, valued particularly for its popcorn-like spikes of lavender fruits. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of wood.

Vernacular Names

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Agroecology

Usually found in damp thickets, sometimes in low pine forest, rarely in cleared land, at elevations from near sea level to 1,200 m. Growing also in forest and bush edges, disturbed forest and roadsides, in grasslands, bushland, abandoned cultivation. A plant of subtropical to tropical areas, it is not tolerant of frosts. Prefers a sunny position. Succeeds in a wide range of soils, so long as they are well-drained.

Morphology

• Stems - branches subterete or acutely 4-angular, densely hirsute-pubescent; internodes 2-10 cm long.
• Leaves - usually ternate, sometimes opposite, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, cuneate to attenuate or subcordate at base, decurrent into petiole, crenate-serrate along margins, acute or acuminate at apex, 5-9 x 3-6 cm, membranous, dark green rugose scabrous pubescent above, paler pubescent beneath; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, obscure above, distinct beneath; petioles slender, ca 2.5 cm long, densely pubescent. Spikes axillary, subcapitate when young, cylindric elongate when mature, ca 3 x 1 cm; peduncles slender, 5-6 cm long, 1 or 2 per node, hirsute-pubescent; bracts lanceolate, entire-ciliate along margins, cuspidate at apex, ca 1.5 x 0.3 cm, pubescent.
• Flowers - sessile. Calyx cupular, ca 1.5 x 1 mm, obscurely 5-toothed, membranous, pubescent outside. Corolla hypocrateriform, 2-lipped, 5-lobed, light blue or violet; upper lip 2-lobed; lobes suborbicular, ca 2 x 1.5 mm; lower lip 3-lobed; midlobe suborbicular, ca 2 x 1.5 mm; lateral lobes medium, obtuse, ca 1 x 1 mm; tube narrow, ca 7 x 1 mm, glabrous, pubescent above middle outside. Stamens 4, didynamous; filaments filiform, ca 3 mm long; anthers ovoid or oblong, ca 1 mm long, basifixed. Ovary subglobose, ca 1 x 0.8 mm; style stout, ca 1 mm long; stigma subcapitate.
• Fruits - drupe globose, ca 3 mm, purple; endocarp hard, splitting into 2 pyrenes.

Cultivation

Propagated by seeds and cuttings.

Chemical Constituents

Flavonoids and phenol, kaempferol-3,7-dimethyl ether, verbascoside, apigenin, umuhengerin, ladanetin, and scutellarein-7-O-β-D-apiofuranoside.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The leaves are crushed and mixed in hot water and the liquid drunk to treat rheumatism, generalized body pains and indigestion.
• The leaves are also used in the treatment of colds and ringworm.
• The roots are used to treat eczema.