Persicaria chinensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Persicaria chinensis (L.) H. Gross

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 49(2): 269 (1913).

Family: Polygonaceae

Synonyms

• Polygonum chinense L. (1753).

Vernacular names

• Chinese knotweed (En)
• Malaysia: pokok semuloh
• Laos: sam koi
• Vietnam: mía bẻm, mía mung, thồm lồm.

Distribution

Widely distributed in the subtropical regions of India to East and South-East Asia.

Uses

In Indonesia, the juice of the plant is employed in the treatment of eye diseases. A poultice is applied to the abdomen for stomach-ache. In Vietnam, a decoction of the plant is used as a depurative. Externally, it is used to treat eczema of the ears.

Observations

• A glabrous perennial herb, 0.3-6 m long, stem often very long and climbing and drooping, ridged, often woody at base.
• Leaves broadly ovate to oblong, 3-10 cm × 1-5 cm, base rounded, truncate to subemarginate, apex acute to abruptly acuminate, margins often crispate, glabrous or pubescent, petiole 1.5-2 cm long, often with rounded, amplexicaul basal auricles, auricles of highest petioles attached to leaf blade, ocrea 1-2 cm long, membranaceous, glabrous, truncate, veined.
• Corymbs or panicles widely branched, pseudo-spikes usually numerous, 3-7 mm long, 10-20-flowered, bracts 1-3.
• Pedicel subequalling the perianth, glandular; flowers 3-4 mm long, heterodistylous, white or pink, accrescent and fleshy after anthesis, styles 3.
• Nutlet trigonous, subglobose, 2-2.5 mm long, bluish-black, dull.

P. chinensis is very common in brushwood, forest borders, open forest, riverbanks, and tea- and Cinchona-plantations in the whole of Indo-China, from 250-3300 m altitude. On mountain tops often small and erect.

Selected sources

• [74] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1964—1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1964) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• [237] de Guzman, C.C. & Siemonsma, J.S. (Editors), 1999. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 13. Spices. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands. 400 pp.
• [455] Huang, T.-C. (Editor), 1993—. Flora of Taiwan. 2nd Edition. Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
• [736] Nguyen Thi Do, 1994. Family Polygonaceae Juss. in the Flora of Vietnam. Journal of Biology (Hanoi) 16(4): 77—78. (in Vietnamese)
• [788] 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.
• [914] Siemonsma, J.S. & Kasem Piluek (Editors), 1993. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 8. Vegetables. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 412 pp.

Main genus page

• Persicaria

Authors

• Nguyen Thi Do