''Dicliptera tinctoria'' is the accepted name of a species in the family

Acanthaceae Acanthaceae is a family (the acanthus family) of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are tropical herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are epiphytes. Only a few species are distributed in te ...

(previously described here as the

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

Peristrophe ''Peristrophe'' was a genus of up to 40 species of flowering plants: that are now usually considered synonyms in the genus '' Dicliptera'' Juss. Species remain part of the family Acanthaceae and tribe Justicieae, native to warm temperate to trop ...

bivalvis'' ( L.)

Merr. Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through ...

and ''P. roxburghiana''). It may be called magenta plant, or lá cẩm in

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

and native to southeastern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

from

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

south to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and east to mainland

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

.Flora of Taiwan
''Peristrophe roxburghiana''
.Flora of China (draft)

Germplasm Resources Information Network
''Peristrophe bivalvis''

Description

It is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

growing to 0.3–1 m tall. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are lanceolate to ovoid-acute, 20–75 mm long and 10–35 mm wide. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are two-lobed, the long axis up to 50 mm long; they are magenta to reddish-violet.Taiwan Forestry ''Flora of Taiwan'' 4: 183
in Chinese

Cultivation and uses

Culinary use

An extract of its leaves is used as a food dye, and imparts a magenta tone to some

foods, particularly in a

taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

-filled cake called ''

bánh da lợn ''Bánh da lợn'' or ''bánh chín tầng mây'' or ''bánh da heo''The "d" in "da" is pronounced like a "z" in northern Vietnamese pronunciation and like a "y" in southern Vietnamese pronunciation. () is a Vietnamese steamed layer cake made from ...

'' and

glutinous rice Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose ...

dishes such as ''

xôi ''Xôi'' () is a savory (''mặn'') or sweet (''ngọt'') Vietnamese dish made from glutinous rice and other ingredients. Xôi is a common on-the-go breakfast item, and a popular snack nationwide. Although it is often served as a breakfast or de ...

lá cẩm'', a sweet dessert.

Medicinal use

The plant is used in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

. The leaves have been used in water extract decoctions for the treatment of ailments including cough, dysentery, diarrhoea and bronchitis.

References

Links

Magenta plant pagePhotoPhoto
{{Taxonbar, from=Q24849686 Acanthaceae Flora of Indo-China