Articles

Breynia vitis-idaea

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Synonyms

Breynia rhamnoides (Willd.) Mull. Arg., Breynia officinalis Hemsley, Breynia microcalyx Ridley.

Vernacular Names

Geographical Distributions

From India eastward to the Philippines and southward to Peninsular Malaysia.

Description

A shrub or treelet up to 3 m tall and devoid of hairs.

The leaf is egg-shaped. The leaf size is 2.3-5.5 cm x 1.3-3.1 cm and length width ratio is 1.8-2. The base is blunt or rounded at the end as well as the apex and abruptly in a short stiff point. The margin is flat, papery, leaf stalk is 2-4 mm long, stipules are about 2 mm long. 

Staminate flowers are 1.3-1.8 mm in diametre, 3.5-5 mm long pedicel, size of sepal is 1.5-2 mm x 1.3-1.8 mm, relatively thin, greenish, lobes are about 0.3 mm long and 0.8 mm long anthers. Pistillate flowers are 1.6-5.3 mm in diameter, pedicel is 2.5-4 mm long, sepal is 1.3-2.8 mm long and greenish, lobes are 0.4-2.2 mm wide while the ovary is cylindrical about 2 mm x 1 mm and apically divided. The stigmas are about 0.2 mm long but not united and split; theypoint towards each other.

The fruit is  egg-shaped to spherical and its size is about 4.6-6.3 mm x 4.6-6.7 mm. It is sometimes a bit spiny, with narrow apical crown and red.

The seed size is 3-4.5 mm x 1.8-2.5 mm x 1.7-2.5 mm.

Ecology / Cultivation

B. vitis-idaea is usually scattered, in forest edges and clearings in evergreen forest, mangrove, swamp forest, bamboo thickets, along rivers and roads and near the beach, from sea-level up to 800 m altitude.

Line Drawing / Photograph

References

1. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2). 1998, Unesco.