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Spigelia longiflora, with no commonly used English name, is an attractive species of wildflower endemic to Mexico. It belongs to the mostly tropical family Loganiaceae.
In Mexico Spigelia longiflora is used as a pesticide. In an 1894 classic book on Mexican medicine it is reported that in Hidalgo state, since very remote times, the plant has been used to kill certain animals. Animals of large size are said to die quickly by ingesting not very large quantities of the fresh plant. Smaller animals such as dogs and rabbits died in early laboratory experiments after ingesting less than a cubic centimeter of plant extract. Despite such reports, and knowing that the species contains active ingredients such as the toxic alkaloid spigeline, in traditional medicine the root is used to increase peristaltic movements, thus serving as an anthelmintic and purgative.
Spigelia longiflora is endemic just to the central Mexican states of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Veracruz. Possibly a disjunct population turns up in Jalisco state as well.
West Indian pinkroot · Spigelia elbakyanii · Purpleflower pinkroot · Spigelia genuflexa · Woodland pinkroot · Pinkroot
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Spigelia longiflora by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
