Woodland false buttonweed (Spermacoce remota)

Siwingan or woodland false buttonweed (Spermacoce remota) is a plant species in the Rubiaceae, an upright or spreading perennial herb up to 50 cm high, rectangular stems with scaly hairs on the ridges, branched and green in color.

S. remote has leaf blades up to 8 cm long, up to 2 cm wide and hairy. 5-6 lateral veins on each side of the midrib. Bare surface, undersurface with a few hairs along the veins. Stipules interpetiolar, hairy, margin scalloped with 7 teeth or pegs and teeth about 2-4 mm long.





Inflorescence in dense axillary fascicles. Individual flowers are about 5 mm in diameter. The calyx lobes are 0.5-1 mm long and are covered with hair. The corolla tube is about 2.5 mm long, the lobes 2–2.5 mm long and are covered with hairs only on the outer surface near the apex. The anthers are 1 mm long. The filaments are 1-1.5 mm long and are attached to the corolla tube.

This species grows near sea level to an elevation of 900 meters. It grows in disturbed areas and along paths and roads, rainforests, mahogany forests, teak forests, riparian forests and most of the Pantropical countries.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Subfamily: Rubioideae
Tribe: Spermacoceae
Genus: Spermacoce L. in Sp. Pl.: 102 (1753)
Species: Spermacoce remota Lam. in Tabl. Encycl. 1: 273 (1792)

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS

Borreria remota (Lam.) Bacigalupo & E.L.Cabral in Darwiniana 37: 334 (1999)

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Bigelovia vaginata (Willd.) Spreng. in Syst. Veg., ed. 16. 1: 405 (1824)
Borreria assurgens (Ruiz & Pav.) Griseb. in Abh. Königl. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen 24: 156 (1879)
Borreria malacophylla Standl. & L.O.Williams in Ceiba 1: 165 (1950)
Borreria vaginata (Willd.) F.Dietr. in Neu. Nachtr. Vollst. Lex. Gärtn. 2: 16 (1826)
Borreria wydleriana DC. in Prodr. 4: 545 (1830)
Spermacoce assurgens Ruiz & Pav. in Fl. Peruv. 1: 60 (1798)
Spermacoce chapmanii Torr. & A.Gray in Fl. N. Amer. 2: 27 (1841)
Spermacoce dichotoma Willd. ex Steud. in Nomencl. Bot., ed. 2. 2: 618 (1841)
Spermacoce echioides Kunth in F.W.H.von Humboldt, A.J.A.Bonpland & C.S.Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. 3: 344 (1819)
Spermacoce hebecarpa DC. (1830)
Spermacoce hondurensis Govaerts in World Checkl. Seed Pl. 2: 16 (1996)
Spermacoce lanceolata Link in Enum. Hort. Berol. Alt. 1: 132 (1821)
Spermacoce parviflora Salisb. in Prodr. Stirp. Chap. Allerton: 60 (1796)
Spermacoce sexangularis Sieber ex Steud. in Nomencl. Bot., ed. 2. 2: 619 (1841)
Spermacoce suffrutescens Jacq. in Pl. Hort. Schoenbr. 3: 40 (1798)
Spermacoce suffruticosa Spreng. (1824)
Spermacoce tenuior var. commersonii Verdc. in Kew Bull. 37: 546 (1983)
Spermacoce tetragona DC. (1830)
Spermacoce vaginata Willd. in J.J.Roemer & J.A.Schultes, Syst. Veg., ed. 15[bis]. 3: 531 (1818)
Spermacoce wydleriana (DC.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 3(2): 123 (1898)
Tessiera pubescens Miq. in Stirp. Surinam. Select.: 178 (1851)

PUBLICATIONS

Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.

Bacigalupo, N.M. & Cabral, E.L. (1999). Sobre la identidad de dos especies de Lamarck, Spermacoce laevis y S. remota (Rubiaceae, Spermacoceae). Darwiniana 37: 333-334.

Davidse, G. & al. (eds.) (2012). Flora Mesoamericana 4(2): 1-533. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.

Deb, D.B. & Gangopadhyay, M. (2025). Flora of India 14: 1-607. Botanical Survey of India.

Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Database in ACCESS: 1-216203. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Hammel, B.E., Grayum, M.H., Herrera, C. & Zamora, N. (eds.) (2014). Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 7: 1-840. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Harwood, R. & Dessein, S. (2005). Australian Spermacoce (Rubiaceae: Spermacoceae). I. Northern Territory. Australian Systematic Botany 18: 297-365.

Idárraga-Piedrahita, A., Ortiz, R.D.C., Callejas Posada, R. & Merello, M. (eds.) (2011). Flora de Antioquia: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares 2: 1-939. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín.

Karthigeyan, K., Pandey, R.P. & Mao, A.A. (eds.) (2023). Flora of Andaman and Nicobar Islands 2: 1-689. Botanical Survey of India. Ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

Mao, A.A. & Dash, S.S. (2020). Flowering Plants of India an Annotated Checklist (Dicotyledons) 1: 1-970. Botanical Survey of India.

Middleton, J.D. (ed.) (2019). Flora of Singapore 13: 1-654. Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Puff, C., Chayamarit, K., Chamchumroon, V. & Esser, H.-J. (2021). Flora of Thailand 15(1): 1-235. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.

Whistler, W.A. (2022). Flora of Samoa Flowering Plants: 1-930. National Tropical Botanicl Garden. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Wu, Z., Raven, P.H. & Hong, D. (eds.) (2011). Flora of China 19: 1-884. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

VERNACULAR NAME

Chinese (Simplified): 光叶丰花草
Chinese (Traditional): 光葉豐花草 - 光葉鴨舌癀舅
English: Woodland false buttonweed, Siwingan, Buttonweed
Indonesian: Siwingan
Japanese: ナガバハリフタバ
Java: Siwingan
Korean: 우드랜드 거짓 단추풀
Spanish: Botoncillo, Juana la blanca
Thai: หญ้าเขมร

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