''Dicliptera tinctoria'' is the accepted name of a species in the family
Acanthaceae (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 and native to southeastern
Asia from
Assam 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,
Java, 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.
[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 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
flowers 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 Vietnamese foods, particularly in a taro-filled cake called '' bánh da lợn'' 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 lá cẩm'', a sweet dessert.
Medicinal use
The plant is used in traditional Chinese medicine. 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