Bon Tulshi(বন তুলসী) - Croton bonplandianum

Bengali Name :	Bon Tulshi, বন তুলসী
Common Name :	Bon Tulshi
Botanical Name :	Croton bonplandianum
Family :	Euphorbiaceae(Castor family)

This is a weed flower from the flowering genus Croton. This is vastly available at our country Bangladesh(বাংলাদেশ). We call this Bon Tulshi(বন তুলসী) as it's leaf has the similarity with the leaf of Basil. Bon Tulshi(বন তুলসী) means wild Basil. Botanical name is Croton bonplandianum. It belongs to the plant family Euphorbiaceae.

This is an annual herb plant grows mainly as a bush, profoundly grows around the canal, river bank, waste lands etc areas. Basil like leafs are alternately arranged around the stems. Normally the Crotons(genus of the plant) are famous for it's lovely foliage. But in this case it's leaf are different in outlook. And also, its a weed and found as wild. At some regions this weed has already identified as noxious. Touching eyes after touching it's leafs and flowers can cause inflammation.

Flowers use to come around the raceme that is emerged from the end of the branch. Small white flowers are arranged around that raceme through a short stalk. Only the stamens are noticeable from the flower but it has five petals and five sepals too. Fruits are capsule like and has lot of wart over the skin.

People use to find detergent from the ashes of this plant to clean the cotton cloths. Basically they burn the plant to collect the ashes and preserve that on a bottle for an week. After that they mix those ashes with warm water to clean clothes.


Photos of this article were taken from Rajshahi(রাজশাহী) during the Month of July, 2012. It was amid of the dread river Padma(পদ্মা নদী).


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