hemp agrimony

Eupatorium cannabinum is a perennial herb up to 1.75 metres (5.7 feet) tall forming extensive clumps, with the reddish stems covered in small hairs. The leaves are opposite, deeply 3-lobed, occasionally 5-lobed, and have serrated margins. It is dioecious, with racemes of mauve flower heads which are pollinated by insects from July to early September. The flowers are visited by many types of insects, and have a generalised pollination syndrome. The flower heads are composed of dense clusters of 2–5 mm long florets of fluffy appearance, and can be pink or purple, or rarely whitish. The fruit is an achene about 2 or 3 mm long, borne by a pappus with hairs 3 to 5 mm long, which is distributed by the wind. The plant over-winters as a hemicryptophyte.

E. cannabinum, known locally by the Nepali names of Banmara and Kalijhar, is used as a styptic in the folk medicine of the Indian state of Sikkim in the Eastern Himalayas (to which the plant is not native, but an introduction).

The leaves and tender stems are crushed fresh and the juice is applied to cuts and bruises. Sometimes, when the wound is large, the squeezed remains of the plant are placed over the wound in the form of a poultice. The bleeding stops immediately and the wound is protected from infection.