Phrynium placentarium (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Phrynium placentarium (Lour.) Merr.

Family: Marantaceae

Synonyms

• Phrynium densiflorum Blume,
• P. parviflorum Roxb.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: patat lipung (Sundanese), angkrik (Javanese), daun nasi (Manado)
• Thailand: saat khaao (northern), saat tong khaao (Chiang Mai)
• Vietnam: cây lá dong, cây dong, cây lùn.

Distribution

Bhutan, India, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, southern China, Thailand, Java; probably also elsewhere in Malesia.

Uses

The leaves of P. placentarium (and sometimes other Phrynium species and species of the related genus Phacelophrynium K. Schum.) are commonly used for wrapping food, e.g. meat, fish, cooked rice, and vegetables in Java and cakes in Vietnam. In New Guinea Phrynium Willd. is also used for thatching. In Vietnam leaves are soaked in rice alcohol or in a solution of sugar in water to make a vinegar, and a leaf juice is applied as an antidote for alcohol intoxication and snake bites.

Observations

• An erect herb up to 1.5(-2) m tall with creeping rhizome.
• Leaves 1(-2) basal and 1 cauline, ovate to elliptical or lanceolate, 25-55 cm × 6-23 cm; petiole with sheath-like basal part.
• Inflorescence head-like, seemingly axillary to cauline leaf, subsessile, 4-6(-8) cm in diameter, consisting of many bracteate spikes.
• Flowers in pairs, zygomorphous, bisexual, white; sepals 3, free; corolla with narrow tube up to 13 mm long, lobes slightly shorter; stamen 1, anther with 1 fertile cell and 1 sterile, petaloid cell, staminodes 4.
• Fruit an oblong-ellipsoid capsule, about 1 cm long, hidden among the bracts, greyish-blue, 1-seeded.
• Seed ellipsoid, with red aril.

P. placentarium occurs in secondary forest and brushwood, usually in wet localities, up to 1500 m altitude.

Selected sources

6, 20, 71, 127, 129, 138.

Authors

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