A pilose stemless herb. Root-stock creepy scaly. Leaves all radical, 3-foliate ; leaflets broadly obcordate, often purple beneath, ⅓-⅔in., petioles 3-6in., stipules large broad membranous. Scape axillary, slender, 2-bracteate, about the middle. Flowers yellow, solitary, ½-¾ in., diam. Sepals oblong. Petals obovate white or pale-rose, veined with purple, erose, cohering above the claw. Capsule erect, pentagonal. Cells 2-3-seeded. Flowers throughout the year. Leaves have an acid taste. Very common in cultivated ground.
Uses : —Although at one time this found a place in the London Pharmacopoeia, yet in India no account appears to exist of any supposed medicinal virtues inherent in this species. In Europe it was introduced into the Pharmacopœia as a refrigerant in fever, and as an anti-scorbutic in scurvy, but has now fallen into disuse. (WATT)
The leaves contain a large quantity of binoxalate of potash, when the juice is evaporated, this salt is deposited in crystals, and so prepared was formerly sold as " salt of lemons " or "salts of sorrel," for removing iron stains ; but since the manufacture of oxalic acid from other sources, it is seldom used.
A decoction of the leaves in whey is used in the Hebrides for putrid fevers ; infused in water they form an agreeable cooling drink in all febrile disorders, and a conserve made of the leaves beaten up with sugar is recommended for the same purpose.
The wood sorrel approaches the nearest of all our native plants to the Sensitive plant, not only closing its petals and folding its bright green leaves at sunset and with every change of atmosphere but even if the stem be rudely or repeatedly struck. (Sowerby's English Botany).
215. Biophytum sensitivum, D.C. h.f.b.i., i. 436.
Sans : — Jhalla-pushpa.
Fern:— Lahân Amulki, Ladjri (Mar.); Zarer (Guj and Pore- bunder) ; Lak-Chana, Lajalu, zarair ; (Hind) ; Gas-nidikumba (Sinhalese).
