Hypericum monogynum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Hypericum monogynum L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. ed. 2: 1107 (1763).

Synonyms

• Hypericum chinense L. (1759) non Osbeck.

Vernacular names

• Vietnam: ban.

Distribution

Native to south-eastern China and Taiwan, now cultivated in many parts of the world, including Java and Sulawesi.

Uses

In Indo-China, the green twigs and leaves are made into a paste, which is used to treat dog bites and bee stings. In India, H. monogynum is considered astringent and alterative and it is used to treat diarrhoea and vomiting.

Observations

• A bushy shrub, 50-130 cm tall, with spreading branches.
• Leaves elliptical or oblong to oblanceolate, 2-4.5 cm × 1-1.8 cm, lower side paler, with 4-6 main lateral veins and dense reticulate venation, glands pale, sessile or petiolate.
• Inflorescence corymbose, 1-15-flowered.
• Flowers 3-5 cm in diameter, sepals 4.5-10 mm × 1.5-3 mm, free, glands all pale, petals 20-30 mm × 12.5-15 mm, caducous, golden yellow to lemon yellow, glands pale, stamens in 5 fascicles, each with 25-35 stamens, caducous, ovary 5-celled, placentas 5, axile, styles 5, united almost to the apex, stigmas small.
• Fruit broadly ovoid or ovoid-conical to subglobose, 6-10 mm long.
• Seeds minute, cylindrical, curved, narrowly carinate, shallowly linear-reticulate to linear-foveolate.

In Malesia, H. monogynum is only found as a cultivated ornamental, up to 1800 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [287] Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948-1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India.
• [1128] Pételot, A., 1952-1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.
• [1238] Robson, N.K.B., 1974. Hypericum. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (General editor): Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 8. Sijthoff & Noordhoff International Publishers, Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. pp. 14-29.
• [1239] Robson, N.K.B., 1977. Studies in the genus Hypericum L. (Guttiferae) I. Infrageneric classification. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Botany 5(6): 291-355.
• [1240] Robson, N.K.B., 1980. Hypericum L. In: Townsend, C.C. & Guest, E.R. (Editors): Flora of Iraq. Vol. 4. Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Bagdad, Iraq. pp. 363-381.
• [1241] Robson, N.K.B., 1981. Studies in the genus Hypericum L. (Guttiferae). I. Characters of the genus. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Botany 8(2): 55-226.

Main genus page

• Hypericum (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• M. Brink