An ornamental plant

Duranto or Kanta Mehedi is a plant of small to medium size with yellow and green tiny leaves. Violet colored flowers blossom on it. Before they ripen their fruits look green, but later the ripe ones take on orange and red colors. The young shoots of the plant grow from "cuttings".


Kata Mehedi flowers attract a crowd of butterflies and bees. The flowers have a mild sweet smell. Kata Mehedi is used in building fences around the courtyard of a homestead. It grows all over Bangladesh. It has some medicinal value, too.