Biophytum petersianum

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Biophytum petersianum

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 ().

Notes

Malesian specimens are always small with rarely a peduncle. In Africa plants may attain 40 cm with much longer peduncles.

Citation

EDGEW. & HOOK.f. 1911 – In: Fl. Gén. I.-C.: 606
VELDK. 1970 – In: Fl. Thail.: 18
GUILLAUMIN 1909 – In: Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris: 124
EXELL 1863 – In: Fl. Zamb.: 158
BACK. & BAKH.f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 246
STEEN. 1950 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Btzg: 452
BAILEY 1899 – In: Queensl. Fl.: 180