Many people easily mistake Chinese medicinal herb Artemisia argyi and the toxic Acalypha australis. Acalypha australis, also known as Acalypha australis, is believed in traditional Chinese medicine to treat injuries, muscle contraction, and pain. Let's learn about Acalypha australis and Artemisia argyi together with our editor.
Image of Acalypha australis
[How to distinguish genuine Artemisia argyi?]
1. Observe the shape
The back of Artemisia argyi leaves has a grayish-white short hair, and the leaves are alternate throughout the plant, while the back of Acalypha australis leaves is green.
2. Smell the odor
When smelling the branches and leaves of Artemisia argyi, there is a distinctive strong fragrance, while Acalypha australis has a unpleasant grassy smell. Acalypha australis is easily confused with Artemisia argyi, but it has certain harm to cultivated plants, wild plants, and human health.
It is understood that Acalypha australis is invasive and can harm crops and the growth of annual herbaceous plants such as Asteraceae and Poaceae. It can release various substances that inhibit the normal growth and development of cultivated crops and wild plants.
Its pollen contains allergenic substances, which can cause "hay fever" harmful to human health, causing cough and asthma in mild cases, and causing emphysema in severe cases, even endangering life.
3. "Mow the grass" but not "remove the root"
This is not a method to distinguish Artemisia argyi and Acalypha australis, but it is the key to ensuring the quantity of genuine Artemisia argyi. Some citizens often pull out Artemisia argyi together with its roots when pulling it out, which further reduces the already scarce amount of Artemisia argyi around Harbin and gives the opportunity for the abundant growth of Acalypha australis. It is recommended that when collecting Artemisia argyi, use tools to harvest instead of barbarically "mowing the grass and removing the root".
[Characteristics of Acalypha australis]
Acalypha australis is an annual herbaceous plant, 20-150 cm tall; the stem is erect, with conical branches in the upper part, with edges and sparsely rough hairs. The lower leaves are opposite, with short petioles, doubly pinnate, with small and narrow lanceolate to inverted lanceolate lobes, entire margins, obvious midveins, dark green on the upper surface, with fine short appressed hairs or nearly hairless, grayish green on the back, with dense rough hairs; the upper leaves are alternate, without petioles, pinnately divided.
The male head inflorescence is hemispherical or ovate, with a diameter of 4-5 millimeters, with short peduncles, drooping, and densely clustered into a cymose inflorescence at the top of the branch. The involucre is wide hemispherical or discoid; all involucral bracts are fused, without ribs, with wavy rounded teeth on the edges, and slightly rough appressed hairs. The receptacle has rigid hair-like receptacle bracts; each head inflorescence has 10-15 sterile florets; the corolla is pale yellow, 2 millimeters long, with a short tubular part, bell-shaped in the upper part, with wide lobes; the anthers are oval; the stigma does not divide and swells at the top into a brush-like structure.
The female head inflorescence has no peduncles, and is solitary under the male head inflorescence or clustered in 2-3 groups in the lower leaf axils, with one fertile female flower without covering bracts, closed involucre, fused involucral bracts, inverted ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 4-5 millimeters long, about 2 millimeters wide, with a conical mouth wrapped around the stigma, and 4-6 spines below the top, slightly rough appressed hairs; the stigma is deeply divided into two filiform stigmas, extending out of the mouth of the involucre.
The achene is inverted ovate, hairless, hidden in the hard involucre. Blooms in August to September, and fruits in September to October.
