Occasional in open areas Leaves are used in treating pain after child birth and flowers as a haemostatic in menstruation. Stem is a remedy for loss of appetite in humans. Leaves pounded and mixed with coconut oil are used to treat boils.
Details
§ 01
uses
Leaves are used in treating pain after child birth and flowers as a haemostatic in menstruation. Stem is a remedy for loss of appetite in humans. Leaves pounded and mixed with coconut oil are used to treat boils.
Creeping vines. Leaves simple, × alternate, cordate, 4-8 3.5-6 cm, glabrous; petioles 3.5-5 cm long. Flowers axilary, × funnel shaped, 5-lobbed. Sepals ca. 8 4 mm. Corolla ca. 4 cm, centre much darker, reddish purple in colour. Stamens variable in length; pollen minutely spinulose. Disk fleshy, shallowly cup-shaped, surrounding the base of the ovary. Fruits brown, depressed × globular, 5 6-10 mm; calyx lobes persistent × at the base; lobes 7-8 4-5 mm. Seeds to 4 per fruit, black, ca. 4 mm.
native range
Old World
distribution
Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and the Asia-Pacific region.