Botany:
· A stout perennial herbaceous, somewhat fleshy plant, 0.5 m in height or less, the stem thick and unbranched.
· Leaves: lanceolate, acuminate, 40 to 60 cm long, 4 to 6 cm wide, fleshy, the upper surface dark green, the lower purple.
· Flowers: numerous in each inflorescence, fascicled, white, about 1 cm in diameter. Inflorescence, axillary, short, peduncled, the flowers surrounded by 2 large, imbricate, laterally compressed, distichous, 3 to 4 cm long, purplish bracts.

Distribution
Ornamental cultivation; scarcely established.

Parts utilized
Fowers, leaves.
Collect the whole year round. Sun-dry.

Properties
Decongestant, expectorant, blood refrigerant, antidysenteric.

Folkloric uses
· Cough, cold, coughing phlegm with blood, whooping cough.
· Nose bleed.
· Bacillary dysentery, blood in the stool.
· Dosage: use 30 to 60 gms fresh material, 15 to 84 gms dried material or 20 to 30 pieces dried material in decoction.

Availability
Wild-crafted.