Ludwigia adscendens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ludwigia adscendens (L.) H. Hara

Protologue: Journ. Jap. Bot. 28: 290 (1953).

Synonyms

Jussiaea repens L. (1753), Jussiaea adscendens L. (1767).

Vernacular names

• Water primrose (En)
• Indonesia: buang buang (Sumatran), krangking (Javanese), ganggeng landeuh (Sundanese)
• Malaysia: tinggir bangau, inai pasir (Peninsular)
• Papua New Guinea: agidahano (Kutubu)
• Philippines: sigang-dagat (Tagalog), gabi-gabi (Magindanao), tabagan (Ifugao)
• Thailand: phak pot nam (northern), phak phang phuai, phak phaeng phuai (central)
• Vietnam: rau dừa nước, rau dừa trâu, du long thái.

Distribution

Native of continental Asia, Sri Lanka, southern China, Japan, and throughout South-East Asia to northern Australia. Introduced as a weed in tropical Africa.

Uses

In Peninsular Malaysia, China and Indo-China, the aerial parts are used for poulticing skin complaints, like boils, ulcers and impetigo. In decoction, they are used for dysentery, fever, cough and ophthalmia. In Taiwan, the aerial parts, when pounded with ash of bamboo leaves and leaves of Osmanthus fragrans (Thunb. ex Murray) Lour., are applied to swellings. In Papua New Guinea, the leaves and stem are considered to have contraceptive properties.

Observations

A robust, prostrate or ascending herb, much branched, up to 60 cm tall, floating stems up to 4 m long, tops above water, glabrous, aerophores conspicuous on nodes, spindle-shaped, white; leaves broadly oblong-elliptical, 0.4-7 cm × 0.7-4 cm, base narrowly cuneate, apex acute or obtuse, veins 6-13 pairs, petiole 1-2 cm long; sepals 5, deltoid, 5-11 mm long, petals 5, obovate, 9-18 mm × 6-10 mm, apex rounded, creamy white, yellow at base, stamens 10, filaments 2.5 mm long, pollen single, style 4-8 mm long; capsule 1.2-2.7 cm × 0.3-0.4 cm, normally glabrous, thick-walled, irregularly dehiscent, conspicuously 10-ribbed, pale brown, seeds evident, pedicel 2.5-5.5 cm long; seeds uniseriate in each cell, ellipsoid, flattened, each firmly embedded in a cube of woody endocarp, endocarp fused to capsule wall, dark brown. L. adscendens is very common in fresh water pools, swamps, fallow and planted rice fields, and in ditches, from sea-level up to 1600 m altitude. Plants growing under dry conditions have small, crowded leaves, are densely hairy and flower rarely.

Selected sources

74, 134,

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240, Vol. 2 (I-Z) pp. 1241-2444.

264, 739, 788.

Authors

Isa Ipor