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Pillpod Sandmat

Euphorbia hirta

Also called Asthma Plant, Chickenweed, Pillpod Spurge, Asthmaplant, Garden Spurge, Hairy Spurge, Pill Bearing Spurge

In Singapore: Hairy Spurge, Ara Tanah, Asthma Weed, snake weed, 飞扬草, 脚癣草 (Grown in Singapore)

Pillpod Sandmat
Photo: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pillpod sandmat is a small hairy annual weed of tropical America, now found across the tropics, that grows in grasslands, roadsides and pathways. It is grown and gathered mainly as a traditional medicinal herb, and it spreads easily from seed.

Family
Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Tolerates dry spells; water only when young plants are dry during establishment.
Soil
Almost any, including poor, sandy or disturbed ground.
Temperature
Warm tropical conditions; frost-tender, so protect below about 10 °C.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Toxic: The white latex (milky sap) can irritate skin and eyes, and the plant is considered harmful if swallowed in quantity.
Native range
Trop. & Subtrop. America
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Euphorbia hirta (sometimes called asthma-plant) is a pantropical weed, originating from the tropical regions of the Americas. It is a hairy herb that grows in open grasslands, roadsides and pathways. It is widely used in traditional herbal medicine across many cultures, particularly for asthma, skin ailments, and hypertension. It is also consumed in herbal tea form as folk medicine for fevers in the Philippines (where it is known as tawa-tawa), particularly for dengue fever and malaria.

Other Euphorbia plants

Abd Al Kuri Euphorbia · Desert Candle · Greek Spiny Spurge · Euphorbia actinoclada · Miniature Saguaro · Pincushion Euphorbia · Euphorbia alcicornis · Euphorbia alfredii · Euphorbia ambarivatoensis · Euphorbia ambovombensis · African candelabra · Euphorbia ampliphylla

[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Euphorbia hirta by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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