Pouzolzia hirta (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Pouzolzia hirta (Blume) Hassk.

Protologue: Cat. Hort. Bogor.: 80 (1844).

Family: Urticaceae

• Pouzolzia quinquenervis Benn. (1838),
• Gonostegia hirta (Blume) Miq. (1869),
• Memorialis hirta (Blume) Wedd. (1869).

• Papua New Guinea: chol (Tibku, Central Province), gogo (Fane, Central Province)
• Vietnam: thuốc dòi lông.

From India to China and Japan, throughout South-East Asia to Australia.

In Papua New Guinea, leaves are rubbed on the throat giving a numbing sensation, and are eaten when a person has a severe cough or sore throat. Crushed leaves are applied to ulcers. In China, an infusion of the whole plant is drunk by children suffering from atrophy and indigestion. A poultice of the roots is applied to bruises. Bark fibre is used for string.

• An annual or perennial, monoecious herb up to 75 cm tall, stems erect, scrambling or drooping, woody at base.
• Leaves opposite, ovate-oblong, 1-10 cm × 0.5-4 cm, base rounded to truncate, apex acute, entire, 3-veined up to the leaf apex, slightly hirsute above, nearly glabrous beneath, sessile or subsessile, stipules ovate.
• Flowers in male or bisexual clusters; male flowers pedicellate, tepals 5; female flowers subsessile to sessile, perianth tubular, prominently ribbed, stigma caducous.
• Achene ovoid or ellipsoid, black, shining, enclosed by the ribbed perianth.

P. hirta is found in grasslands, steep gullies, brushwood and disturbed habitats, from sea-level up to 2200 m altitude, in Java above 1400 m altitude.

• [74] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1964—1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1964) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• [331] Gagnepain, F. (Editor), 1907—1950. Flore générale de l'Indo-Chine [General flora of Indo-China]. 7 volumes + suppl. Masson & Cie, Paris, France.
• [419] Holdsworth, D.K., 1987. Medicinal plants of the Central Province of Papua New Guinea. Part. IV. The Goilala Mountain People. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 25: 231—235.
• [455] Huang, T.-C. (Editor), 1993—. Flora of Taiwan. 2nd Edition. Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
• [770] Paijmans, K. (Editor), 1976. New Guinea vegetation. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 209 pp.

• Pouzolzia

• Mulyati Rahayu