Scoparia dulcis L.

Etymology	Genus	Broom-like; likely referring to the flowers
	Species	Sweet or tender; reference to plant unknown
Family		Plantaginaceae
Synonyms		Capraria dulcis (L.) Kuntze
Common Names		Sweet Broom Weed
Status		Exotic: Naturalised
Form		Herb
Native Distribution		Tropical America

Diagnostics

Scoparia dulcis is a herb of about 30cm high, found in lawns, scrublands, or concretised areas. The leaves have serrated margins halfway towards the tip. The plant flowers and fruits perpetually, so it is not difficult identify using the floral characteristics.

Interesting Facts

The Sweet Broom Weed is known to have hypoglycaemic, anti-tumour, anti-microbial, as well as anti-fungal properties (Mishra et al., 2011). The entire part of the plant, including the roots, has been used traditionally for many ailments; including for coughs, diabetes, burns, fever, diarrhoea, and snake bites (Mishra et al., 2011).

References

MR Mishra, RK Behera, S Jha, AK Panda, A Mishra & DK Pradhan (2011) A brief review on phytoconstituents and ethnopharmacology of Scoparia dulcis linn. (Scrophulariaceae). International Journal of Phytomedicine, 3: 422-438.