Sida glabra (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Sida glabra Mill.

Family: Malvaceae

Synonyms

Sida glutinosa Comm. ex Cav.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: pulutan lalaki, pungpurutan beunyir (Sundanese).

Distribution

Native to tropical America; introduced into Java (Indonesia).

Uses

S. glabra was considered a promising fibre plant for Indonesia, but experimentation was interrupted, and was not resumed. It was formerly cultivated as a fibre plant on Caribbean Islands.

Observations

An erect, viscid undershrub, 1-2 m tall. Stems, petioles, inflorescence axis and pedicels with patent simple hairs, gland hairs and scattered, stellate hairs, glabrescent. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules linear, about 1 cm long; petiole 3-6 cm long; blade widely ovate to oblong, upper ones lanceolate, 1-10 cm × 0.5-6 cm, base cordate, apex acuminate, penninerved, 7-9-veined. Flowers axillary, solitary, by decrescence of upper leaves appearing as a branched, lax panicle; pedicel thin, jointed, 7-15 mm long, increasing up to about 20 cm in fruit; calyx widely campanulate, 4-5 mm long, 3-4 mm in diameter, 5-lobed; corolla 8 mm in diameter with 5 deeply emarginate petals, yellow. Fruit a pyramidal schizocarp, 3-3.5 mm in diameter; mericarps 5. Seed oblong to reniform, about 1.5 mm in diameter, brown-black. S. glabra is found in waste places and along roadsides up to about 300 m altitude. Other Sida spp. yielding fibre, but in South-East Asia with primary use as medicinal plants, include S. acuta Burm.f., S. cordifolia L. and S. rhombifolia L.

Selected sources

6, 30, 57, 66, 71, 189, 191.

Authors

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