Hiptage benghalensis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Malpighiaceae |
Genus: | Hiptage |
Species: | H. benghalensis |
Binomial name | |
Hiptage benghalensis | |
Hiptage benghalensis, often simply called hiptage, is a perennial, evergreen liana native to India, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. [1] [2] Its habitat is variable [3] and prefers climates ranging from warm temperate to tropical. In Hawaii, where H. benghalensis is considered a weed, as it is in Australia, Mauritius and Réunion, it grows from sea level to 1,000 m (3,281 ft). [4] H. benghalensis is cultivated for its white-pink scented flowers.
The genus name, Hiptage , is derived from the Greek hiptamai, which means "to fly" and refers its unique three-winged fruit known as "samara". "Benghalensis" is derived from the historic region of Bengal, where it is a native species. Taxonomic synonyms for H. benghalensis include:
H. benghalensis has several vernacular names, including madhavi, vasantduti, chandravalli, madhalata, madhumalati, and madhavilata, [1] "Madhav" being a reference to Lord Krishna. It is known as madhabi lata (মাধবী লতা) or madhoi lata (মাধৈ লতা) in Assamese. In Telugu it is called Poola-gurivenda (పూలగురివెంద) or Poola-gurivinda (పూలగురివింద). In Tamil, it is called Kurukkathi (குருக்கத்தி).
H. benghalensis is a stout, high-climbing liana or large shrub, with white or yellowish hairs on the stem. Its leaves are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate and approximately 20 cm (8 in) long, [1] and 9 cm (4 in) broad; petioles are up to 1 cm long. [5] It has scandent branches up to 5 m (16 ft ) high. [1]
H. benghalensis flowers intermittently during the year, and produces fragrant flowers borne in compact ten-to-thirty-flowered axillary racemes. The flowers are pink to white, with yellow marks. Fruits are samaras with three spreading, papery oblanceolate to elliptic wings, 2–5 cm long, [1] and propagate via wind or by cuttings.
Hiptage benghalensis is a native of India, Southeast Asia and the Philippines. It has been recorded as a weed in Australian rain forests and is invasive in Mauritius, Réunion, Florida and Hawaii [1] where it thrives in dry lowland forests, forming impenetrable thickets and smothering native vegetation. The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FLEPPC) listed H. benghalensis among Category II plants in 2001, which are species that have shown a potential to disrupt native plant communities. [6]
H. benghalensis is widely cultivated in the tropics for its attractive and fragrant flowers; it can be trimmed to form a small tree or shrub or can be trained as a vine. It is also occasionally cultivated for medicinal purposes in the alternative medicine practice ayurveda : the leaves and bark are hot, acrid, bitter, insecticidal, vulnerary and useful in the treatment of biliousness, cough, burning sensation, thirst and inflammation; it also has the ability to treat skin diseases and leprosy. [7]
Footnotes
References
Jasmine is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family of Oleaceae. It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultivated for the characteristic fragrance of their flowers. Additionally a number of unrelated species of plants or flowers contain the word "jasmine" in their common names.
Antennaria alpina is a European and North American species of plant in the family Asteraceae. Antennaria alpina is native to mountainous and subarctic regions of Scandinavia, Greenland, Alaska, and the Canadian Arctic, extending south at high altitudes in mountains in the Rocky Mountains south to Montana and Wyoming.
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Senna tora is a plant species in the family Fabaceae and the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Its name is derived from its Sinhala name tora (තෝර). It grows wild in most of the tropics and is considered a weed in many places. Its native range is in Central America. Its most common English name is sickle senna or sickle wild sensitive-plant. Other common names include sickle pod, tora, coffee pod and foetid cassia. It is often confused with Chinese senna or sickle pod, Senna obtusifolia.
Sisymbrium irio, London rocket, is a flowering plant in the cabbage family which is native to the Middle East, north Africa and southern Europe, and which has spread widely around the world as an invasive plant of dry, disturbed land in towns, deserts and farmland. It has traditionally been used as a medicinal herb for a variety of ailments. Its English common name originated when it flourished after the Great Fire of London in 1666, although it is not native to Britain and it does not tend to persist there.
Ageratum conyzoides is native to Tropical America, especially Brazil, and is an invasive weed in many other regions. It is an herb that is 0.5–1 m. high, with ovate leaves 2–6 cm long, and flowers are white to mauve.
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Hiptage is a genus in the Malpighiaceae, a family of about 75 genera of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales. Hiptage species are native to: Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Fiji, Hainan, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. The genus is distinctive in its three-winged samaras; most species bear an elongated commissural gland on the calyx.
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