Strophanthus gratus (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Strophanthus gratus (Wallich & Hook.) Baill.
- Protologue: Hist. Pl. 10: 171 (1889).
Vernacular names
- Climbing oleander (En)
- Thailand: baan thon, hom peenang, yan peenang.
Distribution
S. gratus is indigenous in West and Central Africa, from Senegal to Congo. It is cultivated for its medical and poisonous applications in Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon; it is planted primarily for its ornamental value throughout South-East Asia.
Uses
In folk medicine in West Africa, a decoction of various plant parts is drunk as a treatment for gonorrhoea; the extracts are used as a liniment in the treatment of syphilis and all kinds of tumours. The seeds, less often the bark or the roots, are the first choice ingredient for hunting poison, throughout its natural range. The seeds are used as a cardiac stimulant.
Observations
A woody liana up to 25 m tall, stem to 10 cm in diameter, or less often a shrub, 2-3 m tall, branches dark or purplish brown, densely lenticellate; leaves ovate, obovate or elliptical, 5-18 cm × 2-9 cm, base rounded or cuneate, apex acuminate, petiole 5-32 mm long; cyme 3-32-flowered (1-6 flowers open at a time); flowers fragrant, calyx with 10-20 colleters, sepals obovate to broadly obovate, glabrous; corolla tube 1.9-4.2 times as long as the calyx, white, turning yellow near the base outside, reddish or purple near the mouth outside, red- or purple-streaked inside, at the mouth 13-22 mm wide, corona lobes narrowly triangular or subulate, pink turning purple, corolla lobes orbicular or nearly so, 14-35 mm × 15-32 mm, white with a purple stripe outside turning reddish or purple all over, white and turning yellow inside, stamens 3-15 mm long, exserted; follicles divergent at an angle of 180, 23-41 cm × 3-4.3 cm, tapering towards the apex, ending in a narrow, obtuse tip; seed (9-)12-20 mm × 2.5-4.5 mm, beak glabrous for 6-15 mm and bearing a coma for (10-)23-47 mm, coma 83-102 mm long, spreading, erect or reflexed. S. gratus is found in primary and secondary forest, forest margins and river banks from sea-level to 650 m altitude. In Java, where it is cultivated, it grows well up to 1000 m altitude.
Selected sources
- Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240, Vol. 2 (I-Z) pp. 1241-2444.
- Chuakul, W., Saralamp, P., Paonil, W., Temsiririrkkul, R. & Clayton, T. (Editors), 1997. Medicinal plants in Thailand. Vol. II. Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. 248 pp.244, 459, 672.
Authors
R. Hendrian