Henna - plant profile

Names

Henna (English)
Mehndi, mendhi (Pakistan, Punjab)
Medi, mendi (Gujarat)
Marithondi, maruthani (Tamil)
Mohuz (Kashmir)
Mindi, bind (Mundari)

Botanical name: Lawsonia inermis
Family: Lythraceae, the loosestrife family

Lawsonia is named after Isaac Lawson, an 18th century Scottish army doctor who was a friend of Linnaeus; inermis means unarmed without spines).

The plant

Henna is a shrub that can grow up to 7 m high at its tallest, with greyish-brown bark. Its wood is close-grained and hard and is used to make tool handles and tent pegs.
A coloured etching of the flowering stem of a henna plant.
Image: Illustration of a flowering henna plant.

Leaves - used as a skin and hair dye and in traditional medicine. They are almond-shaped, tapering at the end attached to the tree.

Flowers - used in traditional medicine and oil for perfumery. They are sweet-scented and creamy-white in colour, in dense clusters at ends of branches. Each flower has 4 greenish-yellow petals, 4 sepals and 8 stamens.


Fruits - seeds are used in traditional medicine and oil for perfumery. They are spherical in shape, about the size of a small pea (5-7 mm wide), brown when ripe and contain many little pyramid-shaped seeds.