Very prickly, aquatic, annual herb with short rhizome. Submerged leaves not prickly; leaf blade sagittate or elliptic, 4-10 cm, base deeply cordate. Floating leaves prickly on petioles and along veins; leaf blade abaxially dark purple and adaxially green, to 1.3(-2.7) m in diam., subleathery, abaxially sparsely pubescent, adaxially glabrous, base emarginate or sinuate; veins abaxially strongly ribbed; primary veins prickly on both surfaces. Flower to 5 cm in diam. Peduncle stout, densely prickly. Sepals triangular-ovate, 1-1.5(-3) cm, abaxially densely prickly; prickles retrorse. Petals outer purple-violet fading to inner white, oblong-lanceolate, 1(-2.5) cm. Ovary 7-16-loculed, each locule with 6-8 or more ovules. Fruit dark purple, globose, 5-10 cm in diam., spongy, densely prickly. Seeds black, 8 to many, globose, 6-10 mm in diam.

Astringent, deobstruent and tonic (whole plant); analgesic and aphrodisiac (seed)

Plants For A Future

The seed is a sweet and sour astringent herb that acts as a tonic for the kidney and the spleen. It is taken internally in the treatment of chronic diarrhoea, vaginal discharge, kidney weakness associated with frequent urination and incontinence, impotence, premature and involuntary ejaculation and nocturnal emissions. The leaf is used in cases of difficult parturition

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 310, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.