Volume 7 > Part 3 > Year 2001 > Page 458 > Melastomataceae > Oxyspora

4. Oxyspora exigua (Jack) J.F.Maxwellwfo-0000162561

Gard. Bull. (Singapore) 35: 216. 1983.— Melastoma exiguum Jack, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 14: 10, pl. 1, fig. 2a–b. 1823.— Allomorphia exigua (Jack) Blume, Flora 14: 523. 1831; King, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 69: 10. 1900; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 1: 770. 1922; Craib in Fl. Siam. Enum. 1: 685. 1931; Bakh.f., Rec. Trav. Bot. Néerl. 40: 290. 1943.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Few-branched shrub, 0.5–2 m tall, branchlets subangular and glabrous. Leaves of a pair often somewhat unequal in size, ovate, elliptic, or oblong, 10–18 x 5–9 cm, base rounded, obtuse or attenuate, apex acuminate, tip 1–3 cm long, margin entire or finely serrulate, lamina with 2 pairs of lateral primary veins, outer pair thinner than the inner one, both surfaces glabrous, petioles of a pair of leaves ± unequal in length, 1.5–5 cm long. Inflorescences spreading, lax, glabrous, 5–11 cm long. Flowers 4-merous, pedicels 2–4 mm long. Hypanthium cylindrical, 2.8–3.5 mm long, glabrous, calyx cusps about 0.5 mm long. Petals 1–1.5 mm long, white or pale pink. Stamens 8, subisomorphic, anthers 4–5 mm long, cream or pink. Capsule campanulate or urceolate, 3–4 mm long, inconspicuously 8-ribbed.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala.

Distribution : Malay Peninsula (type of Melastoma exiguum: Penang fide Merrill, 1952; Temengor – type of Allomorphia porphyranthera), Sumatra (type of A. sumatrana).

Ecology : In shaded primary and secondary forests below 500 m alt.

Vernacular : Kamao khao (กะเมาเขา)(Surat Thani).

Uses: A decoction of the roots is drunk by mothers after having given birth; the leaves are used as a poultice on the abdomen to cure fevers (Maxwell, 1984: 229).