Skip to main content

Soapbush (Clidemia hirta)

Senggani bulu or soapbush or Koster's curse (Clidemia hirta) is a species of tropical plants, perennial shrubs, grows as high as 0.5-3 m, but sometimes reaches 5 m in more shady habitat, young stems are round and covered with hair, stiff, reddish brown.

C. hirta has simple leaves arranged opposite to the stem, oval-shaped in a wide line at the base with a pointed tip and almost entirely to a smooth jagged margin. The upper surface is rarely covered with hair, while the lower surface has thick hair.

Dlium Soapbush (Clidemia hirta)

The leaves have a rather tangled appearance and five main veins are straight, curved and spread in parallel from the base of the leaf to the tip. Minor veins spread transversely and straightly that connect the five main veins.

The flowers are arranged in small clusters at the ends of branches, growing on very short stems and having five white petals or sometimes pale pinks. The base of the flower is covered with a mixture of coarse and sticky hair, five sepals but these are very small and five stamens which have claw-like appearance.

Berries are round, up to 8 mm long and dark blue or purplish or blackish in color and are covered by stiff hair and spread especially when still young. Each contains more than 500 light brown seeds. The fruit has flavor and is edible.

Soapbush is widely introduced as an ornamental plant, very invasive in wet zones and inland forests at an altitude of 5-1300 meters especially attacking fissures in the forest and killing native species. Very fast to master wet grasslands, open grasslands, plantations, roadside, wet open forests, riparian zones, forest boundaries and rain forests.



Senggani bulu into flowering and fruit throughout the year to produce more than 1,000 fruits/year with 700,000 seeds. Seeds can remain alive in the soil for at least 12 years. Seeds are spread by birds, wild pigs, other animals and humans.

Fruit contains 49 cal calories, 84.5% H2O, 1.9 gr protein, 0.1 gr fats, 12.3 gr carbohydrates, 1.2 gr fiber, 0.0172 gr calcium, phosphorus, 0.57 gr, iron 0.029 gr, B-carotene, 3 gr, and 0.14 gr ascorbic acid.

The tannins in the fruit are poisonous to goats but are not harmful to humans. The fruit extract is processed into a delicious and beautiful tilapia blue syrup and can be used to increase and eliminate the bitterness of tea. The leaves are used to treat skin infections of Leishmania braziliensis.

Active substances contained in leaves that act as wound healers are flavonoids that function as antibacterial and antioxidants, steroids function as anti-inflammatory, saponins have the ability as an antiseptic, and tannins function as astringents.

Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Melastomataceae
Genus: Clidemia
Species: C. hirta
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum)

Guinea grass or buffalo grass or green panic ( Panicum maximum ) is a plant species in Poaceae, annual grasses, growing upright to form clumps, strong, cultivated in all tropical and subtropical regions for very high value as fodder. P. maximum reproduces in very large pols, fibrous roots penetrate into the soil, upright stems, green, 1-1.5 m tall and have smooth cavities for diameters up to 2.5 mm. Propagation is done vegetatively and generatively. Ribbon-shaped leaves with a pointed tip, very many, built in lines, green, 40-105 cm long, 10-30 mm wide, erect, branched, a white linear bone, often covered with a layer of white wax, rough surface by hair short, dense and spread. The flower grows at the end of a long and upright stalk, open with the main axis length to more than 25 cm and the length of the bunches down to 20 cm. Grains have a size of 3x4 mm and oval. Seeds have a length of 2.25-2.50 mm and each 1 kg contains 1.2 - 1.5 million seeds. Guinea grass has two varieties. P
Post a Comment
Read more

Temulawak (Curcuma zanthorrhiza)

Temulawak or Java ginger or Javanese ginger or Javanese turmeric or Curcuma xanthorrhiza ( Curcuma zanthorrhiza ) is a plant species in Zingiberaceae, grows well in loose soil in tropical forests in the lowlands to an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level and tubers are used for medicinal herbs and drinks. C. zanthorrhiza has pseudo stems up to 2 m tall. The stem is a midrib of upright, overlapping leaves, green or dark brown in color. Rhizomes are perfectly formed, large, branched and reddish brown, dark yellow or dark green. Each bud forms 2-9 leaves with a circular shape extending to lancet, green or light purple to dark brown, leaves 31-84 cm long and 10-18 cm wide, stems 43-80 cm long and each strand is connected with a midrib. Flowers are dark yellow, uniquely shaped and clustered with lateral inflorescences. The stems and scales are in the form of lines, 9-23cm long and 4-6cm wide, having protectors with comparable crowns. Petals are white, hairy and 8-13mm long. The
Post a Comment
Read more

Giant green leech (Raksasa hijau)

Lintah raksasa or giant green leech ( Raksasa hijau ) is a species of animal in Salifidae, large green leeches, carnivores, not hematophagic, can grow to lengths of more than 50 cm, the front is perfectly tubular, but it is getting bigger, wider and flat backward. R. hijau has a front end that ends with a white mouth and has a width equal to the diameter of the front end of the body. The rear end ends with the anus and has a width equal to the diameter of the rear end of the body. The upper surface is whole dark green or leafy green, looks shiny and has no other additional color features. The bottom surface is lighter or brownish green. The skin is wrinkled like tight, elastic joints that make it possible to lengthen the body. Giant green leech moves forward by extending the tip of the front of the body to keep the new location farther away and this movement is then followed by the middle body and gradually the rear where the body moves completely. R. hijau does not suck blo
Post a Comment
Read more