Volume 7 > Part 3 > Year 2001 > Page 457 > Melastomataceae > Oxyspora

2. Oxyspora bullata (Griff.) J.F.Maxwellwfo-0000162558

Gard. Bull. (Singapore) 35: 216. 1983.— Sonerila bullata Griff., Not. Pl. Asiat. 4: 675. 1854.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Shrub, 2–5 m tall, young branchlets quadrangular, sulcate or compressed, farinose or furfuraceous, glabrescent. Leaves elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 9–25(–35) x 10–14 cm, base acute, rounded or shallowly cordate, apex long-acuminate, tip 2–3 cm long, margin entire or obscurely serrulate, lamina with 2–3 pairs of lateral primary veins, at first sparsely furfuraceous on both surfaces, later glabrous except on prominent secondary veins below, petioles 3–10.5 cm long, grooved, minutely furfuraceous, glabrescent. Inflorescences many-flowered and spreading, 10–35 cm long, with the flowers in terminal small umbels of 5–9 flowers, reddish furfuraceous, bracts and bracteoles subulate, furfuraceous, ca 0.5 mm long, caducous. Flowers 4-merous, pedicels 2–3 mm long. Hypanthium slightly urceolate, 3–4 mm long, furfuraceous; calyx lobes triangular, ca 0.5 mm long. Petals 1.5–2 mm long, elliptic to oblong, pinkish. Stamens 8, dimorphic, anthers pink and yellow, episepalous (outer) anthers 2–3 mm long, C-shaped, connective spur ca 1 mm long, epipetalous (inner) anthers 2–2.5 mm long, slightly curved, connective spur ca 0.75 mm long. Capsule urceolate, 2.5–3 mm long and opening by 4 prominent apical valves.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Songkhla, Yala.

Distribution : Malay Peninsula (Malacca – types of Oxyspora bullata and Allomorphia malaccensis), Sumatra, Borneo (Kalimantan).

Ecology : Understory of primary and secondary evergreen forests, 50–1,000 m alt.

Vernacular : Mang re tham ya (มังเร่ทำยา)(Peninsular).

Uses: An extract of the roots in hot water is drunk by women after giving birth; a poultice of the leaves is applied to the abdomen to reduce fever and to the head to assuage headaches; leaf extracts are also used to treat leprosy.