Psychotria daphnoides

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Asterids > Lamids >  Gentianales > Rubiaceae > Psychotria daphnoides

Other links:     https://sown.com.au/psychotria-daphnoides-rubiaceae-smooth-psychotria-turkey-bush/  

Plant  information

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)