Herbal Teas & Flowers

Coin-leaf Desmodium Extract

Desmodium styracifolium

Coin-leaf desmodium (Desmodium styracifolium) is a creeping herb of the pea family, 30 to 50 cm high, its flattened young shoots covered in white down. The alternate leaves carry one or three round leaflets about 2 to 3.5 cm across, the shape behind its name đồng tiền, a coin; they are silvery-haired below and strongly veined above. Purple flowers stand in racemes in the leaf axils, and flowering and fruiting fall in March to May, the pods pinched in between the seeds. It grows wild on midland hills and, more thinly, in mountains. The whole plant is gathered in summer and autumn, used fresh, dried, or pan-roasted and dried.