Glinus oppositifolius (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Glinus oppositifolius (L.) DC.

Family: Aizoaceae

Synonyms

• Mollugo oppositifolia L.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: rumput tapak burung
• Philippines: malagoso, sarsalida (Tagalog), papait (Ilocano), kalidtud (Manobo)
• Cambodia: dang khöm
• Laos: daang khôm
• Thailand: phakkhuang, sadao-din (central)
• Vietnam: rau dắng dât.

Distribution

Tropical Africa and Asia, throughout South-East Asia to northern Australia.

Uses

The bitter leaves are cooked, usually with fish or meat. In Thailand leaves are used to cure colds and headaches; they are thirst-quenching. The plant is also reported to promote digestion and salivation and to cure stomach and bowel complaints.

Observations

• Slender, glabrous, much branched, erect to subprostrate, annual herb, 10-60 cm tall.
• Leaves in pseudowhorls of 3-5, oblong to obovate or spathulate, 0.6-4.0 cm × 0.3-1.5 cm.

In seasonally swampy or inundated and again desiccated localities, up to 400 m altitude. Occasionally cultivated in the Philippines and Thailand as a second crop after rice and sold on local markets. The species probably hybridizes easily with G. lotoides L., which occurs in similar habitats but is densely white-hairy.

Selected sources

7, 33, 49, 85, 91.