U - Y

List of flora of Tobago - their origins & uses: Alphabetic Order Started with "U - Y"

• U

  • urena burr - See below: Urena lobata

  • Urena lobata

    L, MALVACEAE PICTURE OF PLANT
    
    Common name: aramina, urena burr

    Some botanists recognise this as a separate species or a variety. It is distinguished by having, among other characters, deeply lobed leaves in which the sinuses are rounded rather than acute.

    Erect subshrub to 1m (3ft) tall; leaves palmately lobed or angled, downy greyish pubescent with stellate hairs, 4-8cm (1½-3in) long, usually 5-lobed with the lobes again pinnatifid, or sometimes subentire but angled; flowers clustered; corolla pinkish-violet, about 1cm (½in) broad; fruit pubescent and beset with hooked bristles (glochidia).
    
    Invades disturbed areas. Grows in the Caribbean mostly at low altitudes, but occurring on the highest of mountains.

    It is grown from seed. Barbs or burr seed cling to seed and clothing. Origin not certain, probably Asiatic; now a pan-tropical weed.

    The leaves are used in baths to refresh, against poisoning and as a poultice. The flowers are used in teas for colds, as a gargle, as a drink for gastritis, as an antidote for bitter or corrosive foods, and against phlegm or catarrh. The flowers have also been used in teas to relieve pain of urinary disorders.

• V

  Vinca rosea

  L, Catharanthus roreus L, APOCYNACEAE
  See: Citharexylum spinosum
  Common name: periwinkle, old maid

• W

  • watergrass, french weed - See: Commelina diffusa
  • white yam - See: Dioscorea alata
  • wild ginger - See: Hedychium coronarium
  • wild liquorice - See: Abrus precatorius
  • wild pine - See: Tillandsia utriculata
  • wild sage - See: Lantana camara

• Y

  • yam, white - See: Dioscorea alata
  • ylang ylang - See: Cananga odorata

- Important - The text gives information for educational use ONLY and we accept no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information.