Adenostemma viscosum J.R. Forster & J.G. Forster

Family

Compositae

Synonyms

Adenostemma lavenia (L.) Kuntze

Vernacular Names

Malaysia	Rumput tahi babi, daun susu babi, rumput pasir.
English	Dung weed.
Indonesia	Legetan warak (Javanese), rumput babi (Malay, Jakarta), udu tai (Kenyah Dayak, Kalimantan).
Thailand	Yieo muu (Chiang Mai).
Vietnam	C[us]c tr[aws]ng, c[or] m[ij]eh, c[us]c d[is]nk.
Philippines	Boton (Tagalog).
Papua New Guinea	Tigtoni (Pala, Bismarck Archipelago), pisirokot (Lamekot, Bismarck Archipelago).

Geographical Distributions

Adenostemma viscosum is distributed in Pakistan, India, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Pacific Islands Tropical Africa.

Description

A. viscosum is an annual or sometimes perennial herb that can reach a height of between 30-100 cm and often rooting at the lower nodes. The branch is sparse smooth but covered with soft hair.

The leaves form is simple where the lower leaves are opposite while the upper ones are alternate. The leaves form is broad elliptical to oblong and broadly egg-shaped and measure about 4-20 cm x 3-12 cm. The leaves base is rounded-cuneate, the apex is acute to obtuse and margins are dentate to serrate. The leaf stalk size of the lower leaves is up to 9 cm long while the upper leaves are almost stalkless. There are no stipules.

The inflorescence is consisting of heads in a lax terminal paniculate corymb. The inflorescence stalk measures 1-4 cm long. The ring of its bracts is shaped like a bell or cup-shaped, it has 2-seriate, scales sub-equal, herbaceous, and more or less connate at the base. The glandular head is measures about 3-7 mm x 6-10 mm that about 30-flowered. The flowers are all tubular with petals about 1.5-2 mm long and divided into 4, on the outside with glandular hairs in white or violet. It has 5 stamens with the ovary at the inferior of it style bifid; its branches are slender and long, thickened at the top.

The fruit is small, obovate-oblong in shape, irregularly triangular with measures about 2.5-4 mm x 1 mm. It is glandular when young but afterwards smooth or warty and crowned with a pappus consisting of a few clavate setae which usually thickened at the top and glandular. The seedling is with epigeal germination.

 

Ecology / Cultivation

A. viscosum is found in open, disturbed sites and wet places along streams, in forests, thickets, and along roadsides, from sea-level to 2100 m altitude. In Pakistan, it is a vigorous monsoon weed with a rich seed production. The sticky knobs of the pappus in combination with the more convex older receptacles of Adenostemma seem particularly suited for animal dispersal, which apparently accounts for the great distributional success of the genus.

Line Drawing / Photograph

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References

1. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2.