A shrub in the same genus as the cultivated bitter leaf, found in savanna and forest across tropical Africa, and easily confused with the closely related Vernonia colorata.
Vernonia ambigua (family Asteraceae), a relative of the bitter leaf, is described by Kew's Flora Zambesiaca as an upright, bushy, often stunted annual herb 3 to 30 cm tall, and in other records as up to 60 cm. Its stems are much branched, densely leafy, finely ribbed and hairy. The narrow leaves, up to about 10 cm long, are hairy on both sides, and the upper ones usually stand taller than the flower heads. The flower heads grow in clusters of two to ten at the tips of the stems, each with many narrow, white-woolly bracts with dark tips and light to dark purple florets about 9 mm long.
It occurs in the drier parts of tropical Africa. In the Flora Zambesiaca region it grows among short grasses on sandy soil in high-rainfall miombo woodland, and on disturbed ground along roadsides. Its sap is bitter, and the plant contains tannins. Records compiled by PROTA4U list it as a remedy for nose and throat complaints: in Tanzania the root is chewed raw, or a decoction is drunk, as an expectorant for coughs and colds. In Nigeria it is recorded under the Yoruba name orungo.
Note on sources: this entry describes it as a shrub; Kew describes a small annual herb 3 to 30 cm tall.
Sources: PROTA4U database (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa), which compiles records from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève, FAO EcoCrop and other botanical databases.
Used in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Tanzania to treat urinary and reproductive complaints, cough, colds, and malaria; its antimalarial activity has been confirmed in laboratory studies.
A wild shrub of savanna and forest margins, not cultivated.