Lindernia antipoda (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Lindernia antipoda (L.) Alston

Protologue: in Trimen, Handb. fl. Ceylon 6, Suppl.: 214 (1931).

Family: Scrophulariaceae

• Ruellia antipoda L. (1753),
• Bonnaya veronicifolia (Retzius) Spreng. (1824),
• Ilysanthes antipoda (L.) Merr. (1917).

• Indonesia: mata yuyu (Javanese), sawi tanah, tumpangan ayer (Malay)
• Thailand: maak lin nam khaang (south-western), chang peng no (central)
• Vietnam: cóc măn, rau choi, màn dất.

Tropical and subtropical Asia, from India to southern and central China and Japan, throughout South-East Asia to northern Australia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the root with the addition of an astringent, is applied to cure diarrhoea. A decoction of the roots and leaves is used as an anthelmintic. In Indonesia, the plant is part of a medicine for vertigo. In Taiwan, the whole plant is considered an emmenagogue.

• An annual creeping herb, up to 40 cm long, branches ascending at the ends, stem with air cavities.
• Leaves oblong-obovate, 9-45 mm long, base attenuate, margins shallowly remotely dentate, minutely bristly.
• Flowers axillary, solitary, 2 per leaf pair, pedicel up to 1 cm long, corolla tube 5-8 mm long, widening upwards, upper lip subemarginate, margins recurved, lower lip 3-lobed, middle lobe hairy inside, corolla base yellow, lobes pale blue-purple to white, stamens 2, lilac, staminodes 2, erect, apex club-shaped, bright yellow.
• Capsule erect-patent, linear-lanceolate, 1-1.8 cm long, twice as long as the calyx.
• Seed ellipsoid, reticulate, base acute, apex obtuse or narrowed.

L. antipoda occurs in sunny or shaded, moist or swampy localities, also near villages and in open forest or ditches, on arable land and irrigated or rainfed rice fields, from sea-level up to 1800 m altitude.

• [786] 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.

• Lindernia

• Isa Ipor