Boenninghausenia albiflora (Hook.) Rchb. ex Meisn.

Commonly found in the N. of Pakistan (Hazara and Murree Hills) at 2-3000 m, growing in shady forest. The plant has an unpleasant smell and the roots have a spicy fragrance. Locally called, “Pissu. Mar” or flea killer, its leaves when crushed emit a strong foetid smell and used as a flea powder.

Slender, branched, perennial herb, 30-60 cm high, woody at the base. Stems brownish-red, glabrous or sometimes sparsely pubescent. Leaves alternate, 3-5-pinnate, gland dotted. Leaflets 6-18 x 5-12 mm, obovate to obcordate, entire, obtuse or emarginate, petioles slender and wiry; leaflets glabrous, paler on the lower surface. Flowers small, white, in cymes. Pedicels very slender. Sepals cupular, c. 1.5 mm long, 4-5-lobed; lobes obtuse, persistent. Petals 4-5, c. 5 mm long, oblong. Stamens 6-8, filaments slender, unequal, longer than the petals. Ovary 3-5-lobed, with a gynophore arising from an urceolate disc. Capsule 6-8 mm in diameter, membranous, ripe capsule splitting into distinct fruitlets. Seeds black, reniform, testa granulated.

Plants to 1.2 m tall. Stems, branches, leaves, and inflorescences glabrous to pubescent. Larger leaves 4-16 cm; leaflet blades elliptic to obovate to broadly obovate to suborbicular, 0.5-2.5 × 0.4-1.5 cm. Inflorescences to 60 cm. Flowers globose to ovoid to ellipsoid to oblong in bud. Sepals 0.5-1.3 mm. Petals elliptic to obovate, or broadly so, 3.5-6 mm, apex acute to broadly rounded. Disk 0.3-0.5 mm. Gynophore in flowers at anthesis 0.3-1.5 mm, in fruit 0.6-5.5 mm. Fruit follicles 2.5-5 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Nov.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Bhutan), India, China, Taiwan, Malaysia.

Distribution: Temperate Himalayas, Phillipines.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kashmir, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, N Vietnam].

600-3300 m

Fl. Per.: August-September.

Open forests, grassy slopes; 500-2800 m.

Ruta albiflora Hooker, Exot. Fl. 1: t. 79. 1823; Bodinieria thalictrifolia H. Léveillé; Boenninghausenia albiflora var. brevipes Franchet; B. albiflora var. pilosa Z. M. Tan; B. brevipes (Franchet) H. Léveillé; B. japonica Siebold ex Miquel; B. schizocarpa S. Y. Hu; B. sessilicarpa H. Léveillé; Podostaurus thalictroides Junghuhn.