Plant 9 Melastoma malabathcirum

Singapore Rhododendron

Melastoma malabathcirum

 
Description :

Growth Form: It is a shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall. Its stems reddish, covered with small scales.

Foliage:Its opposite, stalked leaves have leaf blades that are lance-shaped, 2–15 by 0.6–6.5 cm, and bear three prominent veins–one central and two marginal. Leaves are bristly on the underside.

Flowers: Its flowers are up to 8 cm wide, with petals that are light to dark magenta-pink, or occasionally white. The flowers last only a day.

Fruits: Its 6–10 mm-wide fruits are somewhat round, and open irregularly when ripe to expose dark blue pulp with many orange seeds. The fruits are edible but rather tasteless, with the pulp staining the tongue blue-black.

Habitat :
It grows in open sites, in the lowlands and on mountains up to 3,000 m altitude.

Cultivation :
It can be propagated by seed or stem cutting.

Associated Fauna :
Fruits eaten by birds, squirrels and monkeys in the wild.

Ethnobotanical Uses :
Edible Plant Parts (Edible Fruits; Edible Leaves; Edible Seeds) Food (Fruit &  Vegetable: Young leaves eaten raw or cooked, taste sour. Pulp around seeds also eaten in Indonesia.) 

Edible Plant Parts (Edible Fruits; Edible Leaves; Edible Seeds), Medicinal (The bark is utilised for treating dysentery and toothache. A decoction of the leaves is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, indigestion, leucorrhoea, stomach-ache, piles, thrush, and weeping sores from insect stings. The leaves can be applied to cuts, painful arthritic joints, swellings and wounds too. The leaves are also made into a wash for ulcers and to prevent scarring from smallpox. The powdered leaves and roots may be applied on haemorrhoids and wounds. The roots may be used as a mouth wash for toothache.) 

[Others]: Leaves fed to silkworms in certain areas. Seeds used to produce a black dye, while the roots a pink dye.