Biophytum petersianum
Content
Description
Small annual.
Leaves 3-9-jugate;
Sepals 3-5 by ¾-1½ mm, ovate-lanceolate, acute, sparsely hairy to subglabrous, in fruit 5-8-nerved, longer than pedicel, +- exceeding the fruit.
Petals lanceolate, 5-6 by 1 mm, apex retuse, yellow in lower half, orange and red in upper, or orange.
Ovary ½-1½ by ½-1 mm, ± glabrous;
Fruit 3-4 by 2-2½ mm, apically ciliate on the ribs.
Seeds 3-4 per cell, c. ¾ by ½ mm, with two longitudinal ridges, in between with transverse rows of small tubercles.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo absent; India present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia absent); Sumatera (Sumatera absent); Thailand (Thailand present), Burma present, Ceylon present, Madagascar present, SE. Asia present, Tropical Africa present
Tropical Africa, Madagascar, tropical SE. Asia (Ceylon, India, Burma, Thailand, Indo-China); in Malesia: all islands or island groups, except the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo.
Uses
In the Kebar Valley eaten by women and pigs to increase their fertility (VERSTEEGH BW 738); a decoction is used in Mozambique as a remedy for snake-bite () and in the Congo as a purgative for children ().