Callicarpa pedunculata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Callicarpa pedunculata R.Br.

Protologue: Prodr.: 513 (1810).

Synonyms

• Callicarpa cuspidata Roxb. (1820).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: meniran (Javanese), ringan-ringan (Balinese), memeniran (Moluccas).

Distribution

From Indo-China, Malaysia and throughout Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to tropical parts of Australia; its range possibly extends to eastern India and southern China.

Uses

In the Moluccas, the roots are credited as an antidote for poisonous fish, crabs and toadstools. A decoction of the roots is an ingredient of a poultice used to mature boils and ulcers. An infusion of the leaves, together with leaves of Ocimum basilicum L., is drunk after parturition and as an emmenagogue.

Observations

• An evergreen shrub or small tree, (2-)3-4(-6) m tall, stem and branches densely tomentose with yellowish-brown or ferruginous stellate-dendriform hairs.
• Leaves ovate, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, (5-)6-18 cm × 3-6(-8) cm, base rounded, truncate or subcordate, apex long-acuminate, margin serrate-dentate, glandular and densely brownish tomentose beneath with stellate-dendriform hairs, sparsely pubescent with simple hairs above, petiole 0.5-0.8(-1.5) cm long, densely dendriform tomentose.
• Cyme rather lax, densely tomentose, primary peduncle longer than the petiole, 0.8-1.8(-2.7) cm long.
• Flowers subsessile, calyx minutely 4-toothed, 1-1.5 mm long, densely glandular and stellate-dendriform outside, corolla purple or mauve, tube (2-)2.5-3 mm long, lobes almost orbicular, 1 mm long, stamens exserted, ovary globose, glabrous, glandular especially at the top, style exserted 5-8 mm long.
• Drupe globular, 2-3.5(-4) mm in diameter, almost succulent, glandular chiefly at the top, pale mauve or violet-purple.

C. pedunculata is found in forest margins and grasslands, from sea-level up to 2000 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [407] Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• [688] Moldenke, H.N. & Moldenke, A.L., 1983. Verbenaceae. In: Dassanayake, M.D. & Fosberg, F.R. (Editors): A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol. 4. Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi, India. pp. 196—487.

Main genus page

• Callicarpa (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• J.L.C.H. van Valkenburg & N. Bunyapraphatsara