Psychotria daphnoides
Smooth Psychotria
Smooth Psychotria
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Asterids > Lamids > Gentianales > Rubiaceae > Psychotria daphnoides
Other links: https://sown.com.au/psychotria-daphnoides-rubiaceae-smooth-psychotria-turkey-bush/
Common name: Smooth Psychotria
Conservation status: Least concern
Etymology:
Psychotria from Greek psychotrophus sustaining life, in reference to the many medicinal uses of the species
Daphnoides from the Greek daphn-eids, like the spurge-laurel, Daphne laureola, because of the similarity of the leaves
Flowers:
Small white flowers in spring and summer
Flowers in terminal cymes, often 3 flowers together, pedicellate except central one
Calyx 1–1.5 mm long. Corolla 2.5–5 mm long, white to cream; lobes usually shorter than tube
Fruit:
Edible translucent white fruit, though there is not much sustenance to each one
Creamy-white ellipsoid fruit about 5–7 mm long
Longitudinally ribbed and furrowed & crowned by persistent calyx
Leaves:
Narrow glossy leaves
Leaves opposite; lamina oblanceolate to obovate or oblong
Mostly 1–9.5 cm long, 4–36 mm wide, apex shortly acuminate, acute or ± obtuse
Margins recurved to revolute,
Lamina glabrous to ± hairy on lower surface, lateral veins faint
Petiole 1–13 mm long
Stem & branches:
Habit:
Shrub to about 3 m high, glabrous to sparsely hairy
Habitat:
Grows in subtropical rainforest and moist sites in wet sclerophyll forest
Distribution:
Widespread, north from Manning River, Queensland
Additional notes:
Use
Can be an attractive, compact garden shrub, where it grows lushly if well looked after
Can tolerate full to filtered sun in moist, well drained soil; seems to suffer in extended dry but may recover
Psychotria
Is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae which contains 1,582 species and is therefore one of the largest genera of flowering plants
The genus has a pantropical distribution and members of the genus are small understorey trees in tropical forests
Some species are endangered or facing extinction due to deforestation, especially species of central Africa and the Pacific
Many species, including Psychotria viridis, produce the psychedelic chemical dimethyltryptamine (DMT)
Plants (leaves, roots, barks and rhizomes) are commonly used in traditional medicines (eg in South America) for treating bronchial and gastrointestinal disorders such as cough, bronchitis, ulcer and stomachache. Also they are used for infections of the female reproductive system. - Source: https://www.scielo.br/j/jbchs/a/3LgRq3N3zL9PBTNhZhXF3dK/?lang=en#:~:text=Plants%20from%20the%20genus%20Psychotria%20(leaves%2C%20roots%2C%20barks%20and,of%20the%20female%20reproductive%20system
Sources of information:
(2023)