Helminthostachys zeylanica is a terrestrial, herbaceous, fern-like plant of southeastern Asia and Australia, commonly known as Kamraj and Tukod-langit. The genus is monotypic and, just like the other members of its family, it has clusters of sporangia on stems of fertile, spike-like fronds. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Green algae Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular embryophytes Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Seedless vascular plants Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants... Families and Genera Family Ophioglossaceae Ophioglossum Cheiroglossa Family Botrychiaceae Botrychium Botrypus Sceptridium Family Helminthostachiaceae Helminthostachys zeylanica The Ophioglossophyta are a small group of plants. ... Species Ophioglossum azoricum Ophioglossum engelmanii Ophioglossum lusitanicum Ophioglossum pycnosticum Ophioglossum vulgatum Adders-tongues are plants of the genus Ophioglossum, which means snake-tongue. Ophioglossum is in the family Ophioglossaceae, in the order Ophioglossales, a small group of vascular plants. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... A painting of Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné  listen, and who wrote under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ... A herb (pronounced urb in American English and hurb in British English) is a plant grown for culinary or medicinal value. ... Classes Marattiopsida Osmundopsida Gleicheniopsida Pteridopsida A fern, or pteridophyte, is any one of a group of some twenty thousand species of plants classified in the Division Pteridophyta, formerly known as Filicophyta. ... A satellite composite image of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ... A sporangium (pl. ... A fern with simple (lobed or pinnatifid) blades, the dissection of each blade not quite reaching to the rachis. ...

The rhizome of this annual plant is short, creeping, underground, and stout. They can bear either a solitary frond or several fronds. Leaves are lanceolate with the margins entire or irregularly serrate. In botany, a rhizome is a horizontal, usually underground stem of a plant that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. ... An annual is a plant that usually germinates, flowers and dies in one year. ... In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ...

The frond spike arises from the base of the leaves with its own stipe. Below the spike is a sterile leafy segment (the trophophore). Both it and the sporophore arise from a common petiole. A petiole (also called a pedicel) is the first abdominal segment of members of the Apocrita. ...

Uses

The roots of this plant are a popular medicine in China, where they are known as "Di wu gong". The roots are harvested during the wet season in July-August. Only wild plants are harvested. In Malaysia, the leaves are dried and smoked to treat bleeding nose.

References

• Helminthostachys zeylanica - photos and info (http://www.tfeps.org/helminthostachys_zelaynica.htm)