Sumatran Scleria

Overview

Scleria sumatrensis is native range is Seychelles, Hainan to Tropical Asia and North Australia.

Vernacular Names

Pangpayung (Philippines), Cói ba gân (Vietnamese), Sendayan (Malaysia).

Agroecology

S. sumatrensis occurs in dry open localities, forest and thickets, but also in swampy sites, up to 500 m altitude; it is often dominant.

Morphology

• Root - fibrous system, brown blackish.
• Stem - robust triangular stem.
• Leaves - clustered in the middle part of the stem, up to 13 mm wide, scabrous on the margins in the upper part.
• Flower - inflorescence subtended by leaf-like bracts (glumes) which become shorter close to the inflorescence. Lower bracts about 25-30 cm long, upper bracts about 5-7 cm long. Flowers in spikelets. Perianth reduced to a 3-lobed disc around the ovary. Stamens about 2 mm long. Style about 1 mm long, stigmas about 0.5 mm long.
• Fruit - depressed-globose, about 2.5 mm long, partly enclosed in the persistent glumes for about half the length. Surface of the fruit wrinkled or sculptured. Embryo less than 1 mm long, glabrescent. 

Cultivation

• Generatively propagated by seed - seed germination time 392 days.

Chemical Constituents

No found data on this. Need further research.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

In Peninsular Malaysia a decoction of the roots mixed with Pandanus and Areca catechu L. roots and red chillies ( Capsicum ) is used to treat gonorrhoea.