''Phyla nodiflora'', the frog fruit, sawtooth fogfruit, or turkey tangle, is a flowering plant in the family

Verbenaceae The Verbenaceae ( ), the verbena family or vervain family, is a family of mainly tropical flowering plants. It contains trees, shrubs, and herbs notable for heads, spikes, or clusters of small flowers, many of which have an aromatic smell. The ...

, and is native to the area from northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

to southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It can be found in tropical areas around the globe, a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

species in many places. This plant is cited in ''

Flora Brasiliensis ''Flora Brasiliensis'' is a book published between 1840 and 1906 by the editors Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, August Wilhelm Eichler, Ignatz Urban and many others. It contains taxonomic treatments of 22,767 species, mostly Brazilian angiosper ...

'' by

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius Carl Friedrich Philipp (Karl Friedrich Philipp) von Martius (17 April 1794 – 13 December 1868) was a German botanist and explorer. Life Martius was born at Erlangen, the son of Prof Ernst Wilhelm Martius, court apothecary. He graduated PhD f ...

. It is often grown as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

for ground cover, and is often present in yards or disturbed areas as a lawn weed. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

consists of a purple centre encircled by small white-to-pink

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s. The flower takes on a match-like look, which is why the plant is sometimes called matchweed. It is similar to the related species Phyla lanceolata, but differs in having much shorter leaves that are often blunt and much more rounded. Both species are common as weeds and in the ornamental environment. Common names in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

include ''bukkan'' (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

), ''ratolia'', ''vakkan'' (

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

), ''poduthalai'' (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

), ''neerthippali'' (

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

), ''vasir'', and ''vasuka'' (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

). It is used medicinally to treat suppuration,

common cold The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after exposu ...

s, and lithiasis.''Pharmacopia indica''.
/ref>

Synonyms

''Lippia canescens'' Kunth, ''Lippia incasiomalo'' (Small) Tildsoan, ''Lippia lickiflora'' (L.) Michx., ''Lippia nodiflora'' var. ''canescens'' (Kunth) Kuntze, ''Lippia nodiflora'' var. ''reptans'' (Kunth) Kuntze, ''Lippia nodiflora'' var. ''rosea'' (D. Don) Munz, ''Lippia reptans'' Kunth, ''Polyumn incisa'' Small, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''antillana'' Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''canescens'' (Kunth) Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''incisa'' (Small) Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''longifolia'' Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''repens'' (Spreng.) Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''reptans'' (Kunth) Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''rosea'' (D. Don) Moldenke, ''Phyla nodiflora'' var. ''texensis'' Moldenke.

Notes

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment
nodiflora Flora of Brazil Flora of the United States Flora of Florida {{Verbenaceae-stub