Simine
Copper Cups, Florimpia, Midday Flower, Noon Flower, Scarlet-flowered Pentapetes, Scarlet Mallow, Scarlet Pentapetes
Ngu phu?ng Pentapetes phoenicea L.
Malvaceae Info (home)
The Pentapetes Gallery
Introduction
Pentapetes is a monotypic genus of annual, scarlet-flowered, Malvaceous herbs from south and south east Asia, extending from India to the Philippines, and to the northern coast of the Australian Northern Territory. It is a weed of rice fields; is said to have medicinal and culinary uses; and is grown as an ornamental.
Classification
Pentapetes is a monotypic genus, belonging to subfamily Dombeyoideae of family Malvaceae. It was previously placed in Sterculiaceae, and usually in the tribe Dombeyeae, but Sprengler (1826) raised it to the rank of family, as Pentepeteae (now written Pentapetaceae). Other species have in the past been included in Pentapetes, but are now placed in Dombeya, Melhania, Pterospermum and Trochetiopsis.
Pentapetes phoenicea L. Simine Copper Cups, Florimpia, Midday Flower, Noon Flower, Scarlet-flowered Pentapetes, Scarlet Mallow, Scarlet Pentapetes Doopaha're
Bandhulu
Tambridupari
bandhujiva , Bandhuuka
nagappu
Baan Thiang
Ngu phu?ng
Pentapetes phoenicea is an erect, branched, annual herb reaching 5 to 6 feet in height, but often considerably shorter, with a long flowering season in the summer and autumn. It is grows in moist locations, including rice fields, in which it is a weed.
The stems and foliage are mostly glabrous, with a few scattered stellate hairs. The stems are green. The leaves are petiolate, stipulate, alternate, linear-lanceolate, crenate or serrate, and variably hastate or sagittate. The petioles are short (1-2.5 cm long) in comparison to the blades which are 5-10 cm long and 1-2 cm wide. The stipules are triangular. The base of the blade is variably triangular, round or truncate, and the apex acuminate. In spite of the narrow shape of the blade it is palmately 3-5 veined at the base.
The flowers open around noon, and close the following dawn. They are borne singly or in pairs, on short stalks arising from the leaf axils. They are involucellate, bearing 3 asymetrically disposed, subulate, bracteoles. The involuvel is caducous, i.e. falls early from the flower. The calyx is composed of 5 lanceolate sepals, which are valvate in bud, and joined at their bases. They have a covering of stellate hairs, with a few simple hairs. They are persistent in fruit. The petals also number 5. They are obovate, and convolute in bud. They are scarlet in colour. There is a short staminal column, of similar colour to the petals, bearing 5 triplets of short golden-yellow fertile stamens, interposed with 5 ligulate (strap-like) staminodes. The staminodes are yellow and red (yellow below and red above, but with some variation on the distribution of the colours), erect, and nearly as long as the petals. The anthers are two-celled and extrorse. The ovary ovoid in shape, and villous. It is 5-celled, each cell containing many ovules. There is a single, slender, undivided, style, which is twisted and thickened towards the apex, and bears 5 minute stigmas. This style is comparable in length to the staminodes.
The fruit is a 5-valved, loculidally dehiscent, prolately subglobose capsule, up to 1.2 cm in length. It is densely covered with stellate hairs, and half the length of the persistent calyx.. Each cell contains 8 to 12 seeds, borne in two rows.
The seeds are elliptic in overall shape, but with indistinct angles imposing a roughly tetrahedral form. They are unwinged, constrasting with the seeds of the related Pterospermum. The surface is rough. ºThey have two-partite plicate cotyledons. Endosperm is present.
Distribution:
Pentapetes is native to a wide region of tropical South Asia from Ceylon and India to northern Australia and the Philippines, including India [1], Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma [1], Thailand, and Australia (coastal areas of Northern Territory), and is cultivated in southern China (Hong Kong, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, S. Yunnan) [2], Japan [3], the southern United States and Cuba. It is naturalised in Puerto Rico and Belize.
Cultivation
Pentapetes phoenicea is grown from seed. In cooler climates it does not thrive outdoors, and it is necessary to grow it indoors. The growing medium should be kept moist. It does not self-pollinate, and intervention may be required to obtain seeds. (Plants I placed outside in late summe,r when already flowering, to give access to pollinators, did not produce seed, but plants left indoors did produce seed - in late autumn - perhaps as a consequence of the introduction of weevils to the vicinity with collected Malva sylvestris seed.)
Synonymy:
Synonyms of Pentapetes phoenicea include Blattaria phoenicea Kuntze, Brotera phoenicea (L.) A.J.Cavanilles, Eriorhaphe phoenicea (L.) Bamps, Eriorhaphe punicea Miq., Pentapetes angustifolia Blume, Pentapetes cebuana Blanco and Pentapetes coccinea Blanco
Images
References
Malvaceae Info (home)
The Pentapetes Gallery
© 2003, 2005, 2006 Stewart Robert Hinsley