Bidens biternata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Bidens biternata (Lour.) Merr. & Sherff

Protologue: Bot. Gaz. 88: 293 (1929).

• Coreopsis biternata Lour. (1790),
• Bidens chinensis Willd. (1804),
• Bidens abyssinica Sch. Bip. (1846).

• Indonesia: hareuga (Sundanese), ketul (Javanese), daun jarong (Malay, Moluccas)
• Thailand: koncham (Nakhon Ratchasima).

Widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia including the Malesian region, and Australia; introduced and locally naturalized in temperate Europe.

The leaf juice is used to treat eye and ear affections. The rubbed leaves are applied to skin affections in general, as a haemostatic on wounds, and wrapped around the umbilical cord of babies. The seeds are applied as an anthelmintic in animals.

• An annual, erect herb up to 1.5(-2) m tall, stem 4-angular, glabrous to pubescent.
• Leaves opposite or rarely alternate towards the apex, pinnately (3-)5-9-lobed, 9-19 cm long, glabrous to densely tomentose, the segments ovate to ovate-lanceolate, the lower ones often pinnatifid, crenate-serrate or rarely lobulate-dentate, petiolate.
• Capitula in lax paniculate cymes, usually radiate, 5-7 mm broad, outer involucral bracts (4-)5-10(-15), (3-)4-7(-12) mm × 0.4-0.7 mm, much narrower than the inner ones.
• Ray flowers (0-)2-5, sterile, corolla 3-6 mm long, yellow, disk flowers with yellow, 3-5.5 mm long corolla.
• Achene linear, 4-8-ribbed, 6-16(-20) mm long, with (2-)3-4(-5) retrorsely barbed bristles of (1-)2-4 mm long.

B. biternata is common and occurs in fields, gardens, roadsides, thickets, teak forest and along watercourses, up to 2300 m altitude.

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• 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.
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1988. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. Revised Edition. Vol. 2B. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India. xlii + 350 + 90 pp.
• 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.
• Li, H. L., 1978. Compositae. In: Li, H. L., Liu, T, S., Huang, T. C., Koyama, T. & DeVol, C.E. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Epoch Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 768-965.
• Mesfin, T., 1984. The genus Bidens (Compositae) in NE tropical Africa. Symbolae Botanicae Upsalienses 24(1): 1-138.
• Mesfin, T., 1993. An account of Bidens (Compositae: Heliantheae) for Africa. Kew Bulletin 48: 437-516.
• 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.
• Sherff, E.E., 1937. The genus Bidens. 2 parts. Field Museum of Natural History 16: 1-709.
• Smitinand, T., 1980. Thai plant names. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. 379 pp.

• Bidens (Medicinal plants)

• D.S. Alonzo & J.W. Hildebrand