Urticaceae · Pilea

Artillery Gun Plant

Pilea microphylla

Also known as Gunpowder Plant, Rockweed

HerbMedicinal
Habit
Herb
Found in India
Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal & more
Flowering
Throughout the year

Plant Details

Scientific name
Pilea microphylla
Genus
Pilea
Habit
Herb
Habitat
Weed in gardens
Habitat type
Cultivated, Wasteland
Native to
South America
Distribution
Introduced in most parts of the world
Found in India
Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Assam, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim
Flowering & fruiting
Throughout the year
Conservation status
Not Evaluated (NE)

Leaf characters

Leaf surface
Glabrous (smooth, hairless)recorded

Typical of the family

Simple type leaf character
Type
Simple
Toothed margin leaf character
Margin
Toothed
Pinnate venation leaf character
Venation
Pinnate

Characters marked “recorded” are for Artillery Gun Plant itself; the rest are typical of the Urticaceae family.

Flower & fruit characters

Flower colour
GreenrecordedGreen or greenishIt is monoecious (with both male and female flowers in a single plant) with smooth, translucent light-green, succulent-like and highly-branching stems. — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Typical of the family

Fruit
Achene

Characters marked “recorded” are for Artillery Gun Plant itself; the rest are typical of the Urticaceae family — flowering plants only.

Local Names

Bengali
বারুদ উদ্ভিদ
Malayalam
പൈലിയ മൈക്രോഫില്ല

About Artillery Gun Plant

A member of the Urticaceae family, Artillery Gun Plant (Pilea microphylla) is a herb. In India it has been recorded in Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and 25 other states. It grows in weed in gardens. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.

Illustration representing the Urticaceae family
Botanical family

Urticaceae

Nettle family

Artillery Gun Plant belongs to the Urticaceae family.

The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.

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Common plant problems

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