Oreocnide rubescens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Oreocnide rubescens (Blume) Miq.

Family: Urticaceae

Synonyms

Villebrunea rubescens (Blume) Blume, V. semierecta Blume sensu Heyne, V. sylvatica (Blume) Blume.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: urang-urangan (Javanese), nangsi (Sundanese), palanggungan (Madurese).

Distribution

From the Himalayas through South-East Asia to Japan and New Guinea.

Uses

Fibre can be extracted from the bast. Medicinal uses are recorded for Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands and New Guinea. Ailments treated include fever, smallpox, eye inflammation, headache and urinary complaints. The bark yields a red dye that is used for basketry. In Java the young leaves and shoots are eaten raw or steamed as a vegetable. In Central Java it has been used as a living fence.

Observations

A dioecious tree or erect shrub, 3-8 m tall. Leaves alternate; stipules connate at base, 0.5-1.5 cm long; petiole 1-9 cm long; blade oblong-obovate, pinnately nerved, base subcordate, rounded, obtuse or cuneate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence axillary, simple or sparingly forked, 1-2 cm long, often deformed into witches’ broom; male flowers 4-merous, with 4 stamens; female flowers with basal cupule becoming fleshy at maturity, enclosing the dry perianth and fruit. Spurious fruit globose, white, about 5 mm across. O. rubescens is found up to about 1700 m altitude in Java, in forests and elsewhere in shaded positions, usually in somewhat moist locations. It has shown anti-inflammatory activity. It is easily propagated by cuttings. The related species O. integrifolia (Gaudich.) Miq. (synonym: Villebrunea integrifolia Gaudich.), found wild from the eastern Himalayas to Orissa and the Western Ghats (India), has been cultivated in the eastern Himalayas and Assam (India) as a fibre plant. Its bast fibre (ultimate fibre cells 25-30 mm long and 13 μm wide) has been made into rope, nets, fishing lines and sackcloth. Nowadays it is mainly planted for erosion control. If indeed distinct, the two species seem to have been confused in the literature.

Selected sources

2, 6, 20, 30, 66, 71, 92, 129.

Authors

M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch