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12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1

Desmodium styracifolium (Osbeck) Merr.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Desmodium in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Amer. Journ. Bot. 3: 580 (1916).

Hedysarum styracifolium Osbeck (1757), Desmodium capitatum Burm.f. (1825), Desmodium retroflexum (L.) DC. (1825).

Indonesia: katepan, melikan (Javanese), susuukan (Sundanese). Malaysia: korat nasi. Cambodia: voë vè:t (general), smau srâlâb pôpôôk, srâka: niëk (Battambang). Laos: kéng no:yz ngwà liaz, pâdông fai. Thailand: ruk ku ning taa no, phee suea nam (Lampang). Vietnam: d[oof]ng ti[eef]n (l[oo]ng), kim ti[eef]n th[ar]o, v[ar]y r[oof]ng.

From India and Sri Lanka eastward to China, and southward to Malesia and Micronesia. Commonly found throughout the Malesian region, but no records from New Guinea.

In Malaysia, Desmodium styracifolium is used against colic, together with the central part of maize cobs. In Vietnam, the whole plant is considered diuretic, and applied against gall bladder and kidney stones and oedema. In southern China, it is also used to treat gall bladder and kidney stones. Desmodium styracifolium is reported to be a good green manure, which covers the soil fast and produces numerous roots, nodules and seeds.

A much branched, erect shrub or prostrate to ascending subshrub, 60-200 cm tall, young stems hairy; leaves 1- or 3-foliolate, stipules narrowly triangular, 8-11 mm long, terminal leaflet broadly elliptical or broadly obovate to orbicular, (1-)2-4.5(-5.5) cm x (1-)2-4.5(-5) cm, larger than the lateral ones, thick chartaceous to subcoriaceous, upper surface glabrous, lower surface densely hairy, lateral veins 8-10, not extending to the margin; inflorescence terminal and axillary, short racemose, 1-3(-5) cm long, very densely flowered; flowers in pairs, calyx 4-lobed, densely hairy, corolla purple or violet and fragrant, androecium diadelphous; pod narrowly oblong, compressed, (12-)15-20 mm x 2.5-3 mm, plicate-retroflexed when young, later straight, (4-)5-6-jointed, article quadrate or transversely broadly oblong, densely covered with hairs; seed reniform, depressed obovate or transversely elliptical, 1.3-1.8 mm x 2-2.2 mm. Desmodium styracifolium is found in rather open habitats, in full sunlight as well as in shade. It grows on periodically wet and dry terrain, as well as in grasslands and abandoned rice fields from sea-level up to 600 m altitude.

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N. Setyowati-Indarto & M. Brink

Setyowati-Indarto, N. & Brink, M., 1999. Desmodium styracifolium (Osbeck) Merr.. In: de Padua, L.S., Bunyapraphatsara, N. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea