Flesh abacus

Primary name: Long-leaved whorl bellwort,

Alias: Mountain water chestnut

, Latin name: Campanumoea lancifolia (Roxb.) Merr. Erect or trailing herbs of the family Campanulaceae, genus Campanula, usually glabrous throughout. Branches numerous and long, spreading or pendulous. Leaves opposite, occasionally in whorls of 3, shortly petiolate, blade ovate, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, tip acuminate, margin apiculate, serrate or crenate. Flowers usually single terminal and axillary, sometimes 3 in a cyme, filaments as long as anthers, filament base broad and lamellate, its margin with long hairs, style with or without hairs, purple-black when ripe, 5-10 mm in diam. Seeds very numerous, polygamous. Jul-Oct. Produced in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, W Hubei, W and S Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan. Widespread in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sikkim. The roots are used medicinally, non-toxic, sweet and slightly bitter, and have the effect of benefiting qi and tonifying deficiency, removing blood stasis and relieving pain