''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 tem ...

(previously described here as the synonyms '' Peristrophe bivalvis'' ( L.) Merr. 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 are ...

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 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 south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

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 mos ...

, southern China, 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

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 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 Afri ...

-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 fro ...

'' and glutinous rice 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 acti ...

. 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