Canthium horridum Blume

Species

Angiosperms > Gentianales > Rubiaceae > Canthium

Characteristics

Shrubs, 2-3 m tall; branches flattened to subterete, often rather slender, strigillose to strigose or pilosulous, sometimes with lateral short shoots to 0.5 cm; thorns slender to stout, 3-30 mm, straight, or sometimes absent. Leaves paired along developed stems or sometimes clustered on lateral short shoots; petiole 2-3 mm, strigillose to pilosulous; blade drying papery, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, 2-6 × 1-3.5 cm, adaxially glabrous or strigillose to hispidulous along principal veins or throughout, abaxially puberulent to strigillose or hispidulous, base rounded or obtuse, apex obtuse, acute, or weakly acuminate; secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs, in abaxial axils with pilosulous and/or foveolate domatia; stipules deciduous after distalmost several nodes, triangular to ovate, 2-3 mm, densely strigillose to strigose, acute. Inflorescences fasciculate, 0.5-1 cm, few flowered, strigillose to glabrescent; peduncles 1-3 mm, each with a pair of triangular bracteoles ca. 1 mm and fused in pairs. Calyx puberulent to glabrous; ovary portion obconic, ca. 0.8 mm; limb 0.5-0.8 mm, truncate to undulate. Corolla white, funnelform, outside glabrous; tube suburceolate, ca. 2 mm; lobes 5, triangular-oblong, ca. 3 mm, acuminate. Ovary 2-locular; stigma ca. 0.5 mm. Drupes yellow, ovoid to subglobose, obovoid, or somewhat dicoccous, laterally somewhat flattened, 15-25 × 10-20 mm, smooth, glabrous, with calyx limb persistent; pyrenes 2, weakly tuberculate. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Nov.
More
A spiny shrub. It grows 2-3 m high. It can be a small tree. The young branches are slender. The leaves are opposite and narrowly oval. They are 2-3 cm long by 1-3 cm wide. They taper to the tip and are rounded at the base. The flowers are small and white. They occur singly or as 2 together in the axils of leaves. The fruit are fleshy and 2-3 cm across. They turn yellow as they ripen.
Life form -
Growth form shrub
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Foliage retention
Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 2.0 - 3.0
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Blooming months
JanFebMar
AprMayJun
JulAugSep
OctNovDec
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JanFebMar
AprMayJun
JulAugSep
OctNovDec
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Environment

A tropical plant. In southern China it grows at low elevations from sea level to 500 m above sea level. In Yunnan.
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Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

The leaves (along with Cyclea barbata) are pounded into water to give a mucilage which is used as a sweet jelly, eaten cold. Sweets are made from the yellow acid berries.
Uses environmental use food medicinal social use
Edible fruits leaves
Therapeutic use Hiccup (unspecified), Spasm (unspecified), Astringent (unspecified), Vermifuge (unspecified), Ophthalmia (unspecified), Wound (unspecified), Fever (unspecified)
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

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Images

Canthium horridum unspecified picture

Distribution

Canthium horridum world distribution map, present in Bangladesh, China, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:745464-1
WFO ID wfo-0000797843
COL ID QNN5
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Hyptianthera rhamnoides Plectronia horrida Canthium hebecladum Canthium horridum Canthium parviflorum Canthium pauciflorum Canthium zizyphinum Dondisia horrida Canthium scandens var. xanthocaulon Canthium horridum var. xanthocaulon