Plumbago zeylanica

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Plumbago zeylanica
Plumbago zeylanica1MTFL.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Plumbaginaceae
Genus: Plumbago
Species:
P. zeylanica
Binomial name
Plumbago zeylanica
L.
Synonyms [1]

Plumbago scandensL.

Plumbago zeylanica, commonly known as Ceylon leadwort, doctorbush [2] or wild leadwort, [3] is a species of plumbago with a pantropical distribution. Carl Linnaeus described the paleotropical P. zeylanica and Neotropical P. scandens as separate species, but they are currently considered synonymous.

Contents

Description

Plumbago zeylanica is a herbaceous plant with glabrous stems that are climbing, prostrate, or erect. The leaves are petiolate or sessile and have ovate, lance-elliptic, or spatulate to oblanceolate blades that measure 5-9 × 2.5–4 cm in length. Bases are attenuate while apexes are acute, acuminate, or obtuse. Inflorescences are 3–15 cm in length and have glandular, viscid rachises. Bracts are lanceolate and 3-7 × 1–2 mm long. The heterostylous flowers have white corollas 17–33 mm in diameter and tubes 12.5–28 mm in length. Capsules are 7.5–8 mm long and contain are reddish brown to dark brown seeds. [1]

Distribution and habitat

Plumbago zeylanica grows throughout the tropical and sub-tropical climates of the world,[ citation needed ] including Australia and India. In Australia, it grows in the understory of monsoon forests and vine thickets from sea level to 900 m. [4] In Dhofar, Oman, this species is often found growing on Olea trunks. [5]

Ecology

Plumbago zeylanica is a food plant for the Cassius blue ( Leptotes cassius ), marine blue ( L. marina ), and zebra blue ( L. plinius ) during their larval stages. [4] [6] [7]

Traditional medicine

Early folk medicine used the crushed plant internally and externally as an abortifacient. [5] In Ayurveda, P. zeylanica is known as chitrak, meaning "the spotted one". It is used with other herbs to lessen its intense pungency. [8]

Related Research Articles

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Plumbago is a genus of 10–20 species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. Common names include plumbago and leadwort.

<i>Ceratostigma</i> Genus of flowering plants

Ceratostigma (;), or leadwort, plumbago, is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Common names are shared with the genus Plumbago.

<i>Ipomoea pes-caprae</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Commiphora gileadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Amaranthus graecizans</i> Species of flowering plant

Amaranthus graecizans, the Mediterranean amaranth or short-tepalled pigweed, is an annual species in the botanical family Amaranthaceae. It is native to Africa, southern Europe, East Asia to India and Central Asia. It is naturalized in North America. More general common names include tumbleweed and pigweed.

<i>Kleinia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Kleinia is a genus of African flowering plants in the sunflower family. Kleinia contains around 50 species and is distributed from the Canary Islands, throughout Tropical Africa to India and Arabia. It is closely related to the genus Senecio but is distinguished primarily by having succulent stems and/or leaves.

<i>Mangifera zeylanica</i> Species of tree

Mangifera zeylanica or "Sri Lanka wild mango" is a wild species of mango tree endemic to Sri Lanka. This stately tree is the tallest member of the mango genus, Mangifera, and one of the two tallest trees in the family Anacardiaceae. The mango fruits are edible and have an excellent taste. It is called "aetamba" (ඇටඹ) or "wal amba" in Sinhala and “kaddu-ma” in Tamil. The well-known British botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker first described the tree in 1876.

<i>Calliandra californica</i> Species of legume

Calliandra californica, the Baja fairy duster, is an evergreen, woody shrub, native to Baja California, Mexico. In Spanish, the plant is also known vernacularly as tabardillo,zapotillo or chuparosa. The flowers, which appear in early summer, have clusters of red stamens. The shrub is usually 0.6–1.8 metres in height and has bipinnate leaves. The leaves have been described as "fern-like." Leaves close at night time.

<i>Halothamnus bottae</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Leptotes cassius</i> Species of butterfly

Leptotes cassius, the Cassius blue or tropical striped blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America in Florida including the Keys, Texas south through the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America to South America. Strays have been found in New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

<i>Leucas zeylanica</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Sigesbeckia orientalis</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Suaeda aegyptiaca</i> Species of plant

Suaeda aegyptiaca is a species of succulent plant in the family Amaranthaceae, and salt-tolerant (halophyte) plant that is distributed in eastern North Africa, the Near East and West Asia.

<i>Commiphora habessinica</i> Species of flowering plant

Commiphora habessinica, sometimes known as Abyssinian myrrh or the Yemen myrrh, is a plant native to northeast Africa and the Arabian peninsula, including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, Oman and Yemen. It was first described by Otto Karl Berg in 1862 as Balsamodendrum habessinicum from northeast Africa. It was then transferred to the genus Commiphora by Adolf Engler in 1883, but given the name Commiphora abyssinica, an orthographical variant. It can be recognised by its simple, serrate leaves and by the pseudo aril, covering the seed, which has four almost linear arm-like lobes.

<i>Ficus vasta</i> Species of flowering plant

Ficus vasta is a fig plant found in Ethiopia and Yemen. The tree is a species of sycamore-fig.

<i>Cleome viscosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Cleome viscosa, the Asian spiderflower or tick weed is an annual herb that grows up to a meter high. It belongs to the family Cleomaceae. It is considered an invasive species and is widely distributed in warm and humid habitats across the Americas, Africa and Asia, and in Australia. It is commonly found during the rainy season.

<i>Sterculia africana</i> Species of tree

Sterculia africana or African star-chestnut is a deciduous tree, belonging to the genus Sterculia and the family Malvaceae. The species is sometimes called the "mopopaja tree". It is distributed throughout Northeast Africa to Arabia.

Senna holosericea is a perennial herb with yellow flowers that is native to the Arabian peninsula, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Socotra, Somalia and Sudan.

Cyphostemma ternatum is a perennial climbing herb that grows up to 2m. It is edible and distributed throughout Northeast Africa to South Arabia. ternatum in Latin means "arranged in threes" and alludes to the arrangement of the leaves.

<i>Remusatia vivipara</i> Species of herb

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References

  1. 1 2 "Plumbago zeylanica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 151. 1753". Flora of North America. eFloras.org. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
  2. "Plumbago zeylanica". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  3. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Plumbago zeylanica". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 F.A.Zich; B.P.M.Hyland; T.Whiffen; R.A.Kerrigan (2020). "Plumbago zeylanica". Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants (RFK8). Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR), Australian Government . Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  5. 1 2 G., Miller, Anthony (1988). Plants of Dhofar, the Southern Region of Oman: Traditional, Economic, and Medicinal Uses. Morris, Miranda., Stuart-Smith, Susanna., Oman. Office of the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment. Muscat: Office of the Adviser for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court, Sultanate of Oman. p. 232. ISBN   0715708082. OCLC   20798112.
  6. "Butterfly Larvae & Host Plants" (PDF). Xerces Society. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
  7. "Featured Plants Spring 2016" (PDF). Desert Survivors. February 2016. p. 3.
  8. Pole, Sebastian. Ayurvedic Medicine: The Principles of Traditional Practice. Singing Dragon, 2013. p156.