Lindernia ciliata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Lindernia ciliata (Colsm.) Pennell

Protologue: Brittonia 2: 182 (1936).

Family: Scrophulariaceae

Synonyms

• Gratiola ciliata Colsm. (1793),
• Bonnaya brachiata Link & Otto (1820),
• Ilysanthes ciliata (Colsm.) Kuntze (1891).

Vernacular names

• Thailand: phak hom ho paa (south-eastern)
• Vietnam: màn rìa.

Distribution

Tropical and subtropical Asia, from India to southern China, throughout South-East Asia to northern Australia and Polynesia.

Uses

In Peninsular Malaysia, the sap from the crushed leaves is given after childbirth. In Taiwan, the plant is considered an effective cure for menorrhagia.

Observations

• A small, annual, erect, or at the base prostrate herb, up to 15 cm tall.
• Leaves oblong to obovate, 10-35 mm long, base attenuate, margins densely sharply serrate, teeth with long bristle, petiole absent.
• Flowers in terminal racemes, 2-8 cm long, 3-13-flowered, pedicel 3-7 mm long, corolla tube narrow cylindrical, 6 mm long, upper lip erect, concave, white with red stripe, lower lip patent, 3-lobed, white-red spotted, stamens 2, staminodes 2, short and curved, base red, apex white.
• Capsule erecto-patent, linear, attenuate acute, 11-15 mm long.
• Seed ellipsoid, 0.3 mm long, reticulately pitted, base acute, apex flattened or rounded.

L. ciliata occurs on sunny or lightly shaded, often grassy localities, along roadsides, in fallowed fields and rainfed rice fields, generally on light soils, often gregarious, from sea-level up to 700 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [581] Lan, S., 1996. Chemical components of Lindernia ciliata (Colsm.) Pennell. Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 21(1): 38—39, 64. (in Chinese)
• [786] Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.

Main genus page

• Lindernia

Authors

• Isa Ipor