Blumea arfakiana (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Blumea arfakiana Martelli

Protologue: Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. 15: 292 (1883).

Synonyms

• Blumea balfourii Hemsl. (1894).

Distribution

The Moluccas, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Palau and Samoa.

Uses

In Papua New Guinea, the young leaves are eaten to treat anaemia, and leaves and roots are used against stomach-ache.

Observations

• A herb or low shrub up to 2 m tall, stems erect, sparsely pubescent.
• Leaves broadly elliptical to oblanceolate, 6-35 cm × 3-11 cm, long-tapering at base, margin serrate, scabrid above, sparsely pubescent below, sessile or nearly so.
• Capitula in large terminal panicles, 10-14 mm in diameter, peduncle 4-18 mm long, involucre 8-seriate, 9-10 mm long, involucral bracts elliptical-lanceolate, glandular.
• Marginal flowers 8 mm long, disk flowers 2-8, 5-8 mm long.
• Achene 1.5 mm long, ribbed, pilose, pappus 5-6 mm long, whitish to pale red.

B. arfakiana occurs in open places in forests, along rivers and creeks and in fallow fields, up to 900(-1600) m altitude.

Selected sources

• Holdsworth, D.K. & Sakulas, H., 1986. Medicinal plants of the Morobe Province. Part II. The Aseki Valley. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 24: 31-40.
• Koster, J.T., 1972. The Compositae of New Guinea III. Blumea 20: 13-226.
• Randeria, A.J., 1960. The composite genus Blumea, a taxonomic revision. Blumea 10: 176-317.

Main genus page

• Blumea (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• D.S. Alonzo