• Family : LYTHRACEAE
  (Loose-Strife Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : MEHNDI FAMILY (मेंहंदी फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : LYTHRACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Lawsonia inermis L.
• Common name : Henna, Egyptian priven, Cypress shrub, Camphire, Samphire
• Vernacular name : Mehendi (Hindi); Gorante, Madhurangi (Kannada); Gorinta chettu, Goranti (Telugu); Manjuati, Benjati, Manghati (Oria); Medhini, Nakharanjani (Sanskrit); Mendi (Marathi); Mailanchi, Mylanchi, Pontalasi (Malayalam)
• Habit : Shrub
• Habitat : Grown as hedge plant
• Comments / notes : Cultivated for the commercial Henna (Mehendi).
• Key identification features : Small tree
• Flower, Fruit : December-May
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Anantapur district, Chittoor district, Kadapa district, East Godavari district, Guntur district, Krishna district, Kurnool district, Nellore district, Prakasam district, Srikakulam district, Vishakapatnam district, Vizianagaram district, West Godavari district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
• World Distribution : Central Asia, India; cultivated throughout warm tropics
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa; Sudhakar Reddy, C et al., 2009. Tree Wealth of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Lawsonia inermis. Downloaded on 1 April 2025.

Botanical Description

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