Ipomoea Carnea

Ipomoea carnea, the pink morning glory, is a flowering plant having beautiful flowers and heart-shaped leaves that are a rich green and 6–9 inches long. It can be easily grown from seeds which are toxic and it can be hazardous to cattle; the toxicity is related to the bioaccumulation of selenium species in leaves but mostly in seeds.

Since not eaten by cattle, they grow wild in Tamilnadu (called locally Neyveli Kattaamanakku) and has acquired the status of a weed especially in water bodies and lot of wasteful expenditure has been done in the past in controlling this plant from water bodies and channels.  There are some farmers who use the leaf decoction as a bio pesticide or pest repellant. One can also make good quality liquid manure or compost using these leaves and thus the problem of this plant as weed can be effectively converted into an opportunity as the leaves are also rich in Nitrogen..

Anyhow, this plant has lot of medicinal values though readers are advised against self-medication of any sorts. It contains a component identical to marsilin, a sedative and anticonvulsant, .A glycosidic saponin has also been purified from I. carnea with ant carcinogenic and oxytoxic properties.

Interestingly, the garland makers use the leaves of these plants and they collect the leaves from road sides and water bodies to fill the gaps between the flowers as it gives a good contrasting green colour to the flower garlands. 

(Information from From : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_carnea)

A callotropis plant and a beautiful insect!

I am not a zoologist or an entomologist and hence I dont know what this insect is. Looks like it is a leaf eating grasshoper like insect. What attracted me very much is its beautiful body colours and how cleverly it hides itself with its matching colours (This is a tiny insect and what you see here is a macro closeup shot).

Somehow, this fellow resembles a painted African dancer with vivid and beautiful paintings all over his body. How beautiful is nature? Another interesting point occured to me was that the insect was sitting on a callotropis (Erukku in Tamil & Malayalam) plant which itself is a toxic one and is often refered to as organic pest control properties. So this insect should be a special chap which can even withstand the toxicity of the callotropis leaves.

Like Callotropis, there are many such plants which has insect repellant properties like the Ipomoea (the weed which grows abundantly in water bodies) and interestingly this plant is called "Besharam" (shyless plant) in Hindi which shows its ability to withstand both floods and extreme drought. The leaves of Sitha Phal (Custard Apple), Adathoda, Nochi etc.

In these Nochi especially is a very interesting plant. One of its properties was to reduce sexual desire, and it is recorded that Roman wives whose husbands were abroad with the legions spread the aromatic leaves on their couches for this purpose. It became known as the chasteberry tree. These were also used in Monasteries and came to be called as Monk's pepper. See www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/_Herbs/h174.htm for more details about this plant.

Coming back to our beautiful insect, we sometimes forget the diversity of nature and we knowingly or unknowingly destroy it also. And this beautiful insect is just reminder as to how they have adapted to the nature. We also should remember that the man is a very recent phenomenon in the Earth's history and these little insects and cockroaches etc. have been inhabiting this planet for much longer. May be they are saying, "Look at these creatures called man. They think they know everything and they kill themselves. How long will they survive in this planet if they continue to harm the mother nature?".