• Family : MIMOSACEAE
  (Pea Or Bean Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BABOOL FAMILY (बबूल फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : LEGUMINOSAE
• Subfamily : Mimosoideae
• Basionym : Mimosa prostrata Lam.
• Synonym(s) : Neptunia prostrata (Lam.) Baill.; Desmanthus natans Willd.; Mimosa natans Roxb.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Neptunia oleracea Lour.
• Common name : Sensitive water plant
• Vernacular name : Lajjalu (Hindi); Nidrayam (Kannada); Sadai, Sundaikeerai (Tamil); Niru thalavapu, Nidrayam (Telugu); Alambusha (Sanskrit); Neerthottavadi, Neettithottavadi (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : In stagnant water
• Comments / notes : In still waters on plains, sometimes gregarious; branches float on water
• Key identification features : Aquatic annual herb, having radical fibres at the nodes and spongy floats on the internodes
• Flower, Fruit : January-November (WG)
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Chittoor district, West Godavari district, Srikakulam district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Palakkad district, Alappuzha district
  • Odisha : Gajapati district, Ganjam district, Cuttack district
  • Tamil Nadu : All districts of Tamil Nadu
• World Distribution : Tropics of the World
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; 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; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1.
• 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=Neptunia oleracea. Downloaded on 14 November 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings