Merremia vitifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Merremia vitifolia (Burm.f.) Hallier f.

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. 16(4-5): 552 (1893).

Family: Convolvulaceae

Synonyms

• Convolvulus vitifolius Burm.f.(1768),
• Ipomoea vitifolia Blume (1825).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: ginda purang utang (Javanese), areuy kawoyang (Sundanese), dewulu (Madurese)
• Malaysia: akar lulang bulu, ulan raya (Peninsular)
• Philippines: lakmit (Tagalog), kalalakmit (Sulu)
• Cambodia: var moba mek
• Thailand: ching chaw
• Vietnam: bìm lá nho.

Distribution

From India, the Andaman Islands and Sri Lanka to Indo-China and throughout Malesia.

Uses

In Peninsular Malaysia, an infusion of the plant is drunk for high fever. In Cambodia, an infusion of the stem is used internally and externally for malaria and varioles. In India, the plant is used for strangury and urethral discharges. The root is eaten raw in India, as a stomachic. The hairs on the leaves are irritating.

Observations

• A large twiner, 2-5 m long, stems terete, older ones striate, glabrous or patently white hirsute.
• Leaves orbicular in outline, 5-18 cm × 5-16 cm, base cordate, palmately lobed, lobes 5-7, broadly triangular to lanceolate, apex acuminate to obtuse, margin coarsely dentate to crenate, sparsely to densely hairy, petiole 2-15 cm long.
• Flowers 1-3(-5) together, peduncle 1-15 cm long, bracts tiny.
• Flowerbuds narrowly ovoid, acute, pedicel 8-20 mm long, clavate in fruit, sepals oblong to ovate-oblong, with glandular pellucid dots, 12-20 mm long, in fruit 20-25 mm long, thick, subleathery, whitish inside, corolla funnel-shaped, 4-6 cm long, lobes obtuse, midpetaline bands distinctly 5-veined, bright yellow, paler towards the base, anthers spirally twisted.
• Capsule subglobose, 12 mm high, papery, straw-coloured.
• Seeds 6-7 mm long, dull black, glabrous.

M. vitifolia occurs in regions with or without a strong dry season, in open grasslands, thickets, hedges, along fields, in teak forests, along edges of secondary forests, on river-banks and roadsides, from sea-level up to 900 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [215] Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948—1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India.
• [788] Pételot, A., 1952—1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.

Main genus page

• Merremia

Authors

• Muhammad Mansur