879

12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2

Acalypha lanceolata Willd.

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

Sp. pl. 4: 524 (1805).

Acalypha boehmeriodes Miq. (1861), Acalypha fallax Müll. Arg. (1865).

Indonesia: klatang (Javanese), pulus hayam (Sundanese), daun brahman (Malay). Vietnam: tai t[uw][owj] thon.

From India eastward to the Philippines, throughout Malesia and Polynesia.

In the Moluccas, the leaves are applied as an antiseptic on boils and swellings. In Indo-China the whole plant is used to relieve headache. In Fiji, the plant is used as a vermicide and a carminative, and is also applied to sores. Its close resemblance to Acalypha indica may account for the overlap in uses and confusion concerning identity of the plants.

An erect or straggling, annual, weedy herb up to 1 m tall; leaves ovate, 0.5—6(—11) cm x 0.5—3.5(—7) cm, base cuneate to truncate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, margin crenate, petiole 1.5—9 cm long; inflorescences bisexual, 1—4 together, shorter than or equalling the petioles, with a short slender male section, female flowers with small bracts, strongly parallel-veined, with numerous acute teeth, sepals 3, lanceolate; producing allomorphic female flowers in the transitional zone; fruit depressed globose, 1.5—2 mm x 2—3 mm. Acalypha lanceolata is found along roadsides or abandoned fields, at low altitude, and is locally common.

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Arbayah H. Siregar

Siregar, A.H., 2001. Acalypha lanceolata Willd.. In: van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. and Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea