Cyrtandra pendula (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Cyrtandra pendula Blume

Family: Gesneriaceae

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: asam batu, meroyan panas.

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia (Java, Sumatra).

Uses

The sourish leaves can be used for flavouring. In Peninsular Malaysia a decoction of the whole plant is used by women suffering from puerperal fever.

Observations

• Creeping or ascending herb, up to 15 cm tall with brown-pilose, subquadrangular stem.
• Leaves opposite but in a same pair very unequal (1 normal and the other small or stipule-like), crowded at the top of the stem; petiole 7-27 cm long, densely pubescent; blade of normal leaf ovate to elliptical-oblong, 13-20 cm × 7-12 cm, margin crenate, dentate or serrate, glabrous above, densely pubescent on the veins beneath.
• Inflorescence an axillary, few-flowered umbel, up to 18 cm tall; peduncle red-brown pubescent, very variable in length, up to 28 cm long; bracts 1.5 cm long, lobed at apex.
• Corolla white, 5-lobed, up to 4 cm long, densely villous outside; filaments 2, 7-12 mm long, with scattered long hairs; staminodes 3; style in upper part somewhat pilose bearing a bilobed stigma.
• Fruit a berry.

C. pendula occurs in forest vegetation. Based on the length of the peduncle 3 varieties have been distinguished: var. blumeana Clarke (peduncle 3.5-7 cm long), var. pendula (peduncle 10-28 cm long), and var. subsessilis Bakh.f. (peduncle 0.5 cm long).

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters‑Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963), 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965), 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968), 761 pp.

• Burkill, I.H., 1935. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2 volumes. Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, United Kingdom. 2402 pp. (slightly revised reprint, 1966. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.).

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen