Shankhupushpam - Another beautiful, edible flower ....

Shankhu Pushpam - (Shankhu meaning Conch-and Pushpam meaning flower) or Clitoria ternatea commonly known as Asian pigeonwings,  bluebellvine, blue pea, butterfly pea, cordofan pea and Darwin pea is a beautiful flower commonly seen as a creeper on the fences (and as fences have disappeared so this plant also) in villages. Rarely I have seen this in pots in the cities too.

This comes various colours from blue to purple, to white, even yellow etc, it is quite refreshing to the eyes.

 As kids, we used to collect this flower especially for Onam floral circles called "Pookkalam" and it is not that easy to make a full circle with this flower alone. After the first summer rains they come to life and in Kerala, one can see them during the rainy months.

Only recently I came to understand that this has quite a few medicinal properties and one can make beautifully coloured juices by boiling water and putting a handful of flowers in it and leave overnight to get a good dark blue tinged juice which you can drink with lemon and sugar or even jaggery.


I found that this is supposed to have some memory boosting capabilities and if one is especially stressed out or too anxious about something, a glass of cool juice made of this flower actually soothes you much. Interestingly there is also a variety of gin called Ink Gin in Australia coloured using these flowers. In Malaysia, these flowers are added while cooking rice to get a bluish tinged coloured rice.





So next time you see these flowers, get some and try your blue rice or blue lemon juice or even a hot blue tea. And also start cultivating a few plants in your garden or in a pot on your terrace (if you have) or verandah. Think of some innovatively coloured Biriyani or other dishes ..!!!

Rangoon Creeper

This is Rangoon Creeper or Quisqualis indica. We used to have this in our ancestral house and one portion of our Mangalore tiled portico was completely covered with this plant like a curtain! I dont know what is the local name of this plant, but we used to call it Madras Mulla then.

The flowers change their colours from white to pink and then red and has a nice fragrance too.

Apparently this plant has some medicinal properties too which I learnt only now. The plant is used for traditional medicine like Decoctions of the root, seed or fruit can be used as anti-helmintic or for alleviating diarrhea. Fruit decoction can also be used for gargling. The fruits are also used to combat nephritis. Leaves can be used to relieve pain caused by fever. The roots are used to treat rheumatism. But be careful before you try anything of these, as dosages, concentrations are very important for ayurvedic or plant based medicines.