IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 71
Describe a useful plant that is grown in your country.
You should say:
- what plant it is
- where it is grown
- how you know about this plant
and explain why this plant is so useful.
[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]
Model Answer:
Bangladesh is a rich land of rich biodiversity where we can find about 6000 species of plants in a small area of 147570 sq km. and today I would like to about one such useful plant. It is commonly known as “Punarnava” in Bengali, and in English, this particular plant is widely known as “Spreading Hogweed or Red Hogweed”.
The plant can attain a height of about 70 cm and spreads up to 200 cm wide. It has slender, creeping and twining stems and also comes with very diffuse inflorescences. Its leaves may appear two in one node, in which, one may look smaller than the other with a green upper surface and a whitish lower surface, and it has a long petiole. Thick leaves are 2-4 cm long, and they can look ovate or oblong-cordate, entire or sinuate. One can also identify it as a “red hogweed” by looking at its large root system, along with its pink, red and white flowers. It is widely cultivated in fallow lands all over Bangladesh.
Anyway, I know about this plant from my childhood since I was raised a significant part of my childhood in the countryside, full of different kinds of wild plants and trees, of my beautiful country. Besides, I have seen this particular plant to be growing in the large backyard of my village house.
This plant has many significant usages. For example, its tender leaves can be eaten as a vegetable. It is considered to be an excellent herb for treating jaundice, liver problems, as well as swelling and water retention problems in the body. Its roots and the whole plant has also been successfully used to treat stress, dyspepsia, abdominal pain, inflammation, and diabetes from ancient time. It is taken as a herbal medicine for general pain relief in many parts of Bangladesh.