Pipturus arborescens
(Link) C. B. Robinson
Dalunot
(c) Hong, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Hong
(c) Han-Ting Liu, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Han-Ting Liu
(c) Han-Ting Liu, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Han-Ting Liu
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The composite fruits are edible. The white fruit is very soft and fleshy - consisting of many small achenes immersed in the fleshy perianths, it is about 10mm in diameter.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows in sunny places in Taiwan along the coast. It grows in secondary forests up to 2,000 m above sea level.
Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, SE Asia, Taiwan,
How to Identify
A shrub or small tree. It grows 10 m tall. The stems are densely covered with hairs. The leaves are velvety along the veins above and are white and woolly between the veins underneath. Leaves are oval and 6-20 cm long by 4-10 cm wide. The leaves have rounded teeth along the edge. The leaf stalks are 2-9 cm long. The flowers are in round heads.
How to Grow
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.
Medicinal Uses
Scrapings from the bark are used externally as a cataplasm for boils. Phytochemical screening of leaves yielded anthrones, flavonoids, glycosidic flavonoids, phenolic compounds, steroids, tannins, triterpenes, anthraquinones and coumarins.
Other Uses
Fibres from the bark are used to make rope.
Notes
There are 30 Pipturus species
Names & Synonyms
Agandong, Himaramai
References (3)
- Flora of China @ efloras.org Volume 5
- Flora of Taiwan Vol. 2:253
- Kuo, W. H. J., (Ed.) Taiwan's Ethnobotanical Database (1900-2000), http://tk.agron.ntu.edu.tw/ethnobot/DB1.htm
