Skip to main content

Woodland false buttonweed (Spermacoce remota)

Dlium 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

Aryo Bandoro
Dlium TheDlium
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dlium
Labels:

Popular Posts

Java milkwort (Polygala javana)

Java milkwort ( Polygala javana ) is a species of plant in the Polygalaceae family. It has erect, woody, branched stems with brown to black stems and white hairs or powdery hairs. The leaves are opposite and alternate. The leaves are oval, up to 30 mm long and up to 9 mm wide, and green. The inflorescences are arranged in panicles, arranged in rows and radially. The flowers are butterfly-shaped, yellow, green, and purple, with white hairs, up to 8 mm wide. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Fabales Family: Polygalaceae Tribe: Polygaleae Genus: Polygala Tourn. ex L. in Sp. Pl.: 701 (1753) Species: Polygala javana DC. in Prodr. 1: 327 (1824) HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS Polygala ceylanica B.Heyne ex Wall. in Numer. List: n.° 4183 (1831) Polygala javana var. angustifolia Thwaites in Enum. Pl. Zeyl.: 22 (1864) Polygala raoi R.N.Banerjee & L.K.Banerjee in Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., B 82: 218 (1975) PUBLICATIONS Aung, Y.L., Aung, M.H....
Read more

Black jumping spider (Hyllus diardi)

Black jumping spider ( Hyllus diardi ) is an animal species in the Salticidae, black and white spiders, long hair, round head, elongated belly, relatively small, arboreal, perched on leaves in bushes and low trees in forests and agricultural lands. H. diardi has black and white color, shiny surface and white hair all over the body. The head is round, shiny black with a linear white line in the middle. Black eyes on the front of the head. The stomach has an elongated, jointed, black cylindrical shape with black plots at the top of each segment. The legs are long, segmented, shiny black or brownish in color and hairy. Black jumping spiders live arboreal, perch on leaf surfaces, low bushes, trees in forests, agricultural land, roadsides and shade. Very sensitive to human presence and will hide behind leaves to avoid sight. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Chelicerata Class: Arachnida Order: Araneae Suborder: Araneomorphae Infraorder: Entelegynae Superfamily: Salticoi...
Read more

Cat's whiskers (Orthosiphon aristatus)

Remujung atau kumis kucing atau cat's whiskers ( Orthosiphon aristatus ) is a species of plant in the Lamiaceae, an erect herb, the lower part is rooted at the joints, 2 meters high, the stem has four corners and is somewhat grooved with short hair or bald, has joints where branches grow to the left and right and is dark purple. O. aristatus has round or oval, lanceolate, round-ovate or rhombic leaves starting from the base, 1-10 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, 4-29 cm long stalks and a main vein in the middle, leaf stalk length 7-29 cm. Glandular flower petals, veins and bases are short and sparsely hairy, while the uppermost part is bald. The terminal crown is a bunch that comes out of the end of the branch with a length of 7-29 cm. Length 13-27mm, covered with short purple hairs on the top and then turning white, tube length 10-18 mm, lip length 4.5-10mm, blunt flower strands, round. Stamens are longer than flower tubes and exceed the upper lip of the flower. Dark brown fruit, 1.75-...
Read more