Wissadula contracta (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Wissadula contracta (Link) R.E. Fries

Family: Malvaceae

Synonyms

Abutilon contractum (Link) Sweet, Sida contracta Link.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: bagori, pungpurutan (Sundanese).

Distribution

Tropical America; elsewhere cultivated in gardens. In Malesia only cultivated in West Java (Indonesia). Here it is sometimes encountered as an escape from cultivation but it is not thoroughly naturalized.

Uses

Experimental cultivation in Indonesia yielded high-quality bast fibre. The plants were pulled out before they flowered, the leaves and roots were removed, the green outer bark was scraped off the stem, and the bast was pulled off in strips from the woody stem core, after which the bast strips were retted, washed and sun-dried.

Observations

An erect undershrub, 0.5-3 m tall. Leaves solitary, alternate; stipules linear to lanceolate, 6-9 mm long; petiole 0.5-12 cm long; blade orbicular or broadly ovate to oblong, 4-18 cm × 2-12 cm, base cordate, apex abruptly acuminate. Inflorescence a terminal, rather condensed panicle, 20-30 cm long; pedicel 0.2-0.5 cm long, up to about 1.5 cm long in fruit; calyx widely campanulate, 3-4 mm in diameter, 5-lobed to 5-parted; corolla 8-10 mm in diameter, petals 5, obovate, emarginate, white. Fruit a globular schizocarp, 7-10 mm in diameter. Seed globular to reniform, 2-2.5 mm in diameter. W. contracta occurs in waste grounds near villages and houses. Outside Malesia it is considered a weed.

Selected sources

6, 20, 57, 66, 71, 189.

Authors

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