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Purposeful plant
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The Candle Bush, apart from enhancing the beauty of a shrubbery where it grows has great medicinal value too.
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FRESH FLOWERS or potted plants inside the drawing room can amplify the attractiveness of the décor. Flowers of a colourful hue can enhance an entire shrubbery and lighten up the indoors. `Candle Bush' is such a plant.
Scientifically called, Cassia alata, the plant of South American origin flowers throughout the year. It is hardy and is found planted in gardens and also as an escape in open, sunny places.
Cassia alata reaches a height of about three metres and bears about 8-14 pairs of ovate-oblong leaflets. Flowers are about three centimetres across, in bright yellow hue, and in dense terminal racemes. The way the flowers are held high make them very conspicuous.
The plant can be grown in intermediate lines in the shrubbery. With its pleasant green leaves and the large flowers, the Candle Bush gives a good show among other shrubs. Being a hardy plant, Cassia alata does not demand much water or manure but well-tended plants require a larger place. Mature plants produce winged pods with a large number of flattened seeds in them. Seeds germinate readily and self-sown plants are often seen around mature plants. Seeds can also be collected and sown in seed pans, if more plants are required for planting elsewhere.
Cassia alata is poisonous to cattle and that is why the plant grows mostly in undisturbed, open places.
Like many other Cassia plants, Cassia alata has great medicinal values. Crushed leaves can be rubbed on ringworm-affected skin, for immediate relief. Decoction of leaves and flowers can be used for washing eczematous patches, amongst other clinical uses. It is a short-lived plant. The way flowers are held up on the plant gave it the common name `Candle Bush'.
CHITRA RADHAKRISHNAN
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