Stixis obtusifolia is a shrub or liana in the Resedaceae family. It is found in parts of Southeast Asia. The wood is used as fuel, the leaves as a tea.

Stixis obtusifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Brassicales
Family:	Resedaceae
Genus:	Stixis
Species:	S. obtusifolia
Binomial name
Stixis obtusifolia (Hook.f. & Thomson) Baill.
Synonyms[1]
Roydsia obtusifolia Hook.f. & Thomson Stixis harmandiana Pierre

Description

This species grows as a deciduous shrub or liana.[2] [3] It has silvery stems and branches. Leaves are simple, the adult leaves are glabrous, though occasionally with a few hairs on the nerves.[4] The gynophore is shorter than 5mm and hairy, the ovary is glabrous.

Flowering occurs from November to March, fruiting from January to April.[3]

Distribution

This Southeast Asian species grows in the following countries: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.[1]

Habitat, ecology

The plant grows in degraded formations.[2]

In the vegetation communities alongside the Mekong in Kratie and Steung Treng Provinces, Cambodia, this taxa is rare in the degraded areas of the riverine community.[3] It grows on soils derived from metamorphic sandstone bedrock, at 20-25m altitude.

Vernacular names

Aw krâpë (av kraboe, ao krâpoeu) (aw="skin", krâpë="crocodile", Khmer) is a name used in Cambodia.[2][5]

Uses

The wood furnishes firewood.[2] The leaves can give a tea-like drink

History

Henri Ernest Baillon (1827–95), a French botanist and physician, described the species in 1887 in the journal Bulletin Mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Paris (Paris).[6]

Further reading

• Dy Phon, P. (2000). Dictionnaire des plantes utilisées au Cambodge: 1-915. chez l'auteur, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
• T. Smitinand & K. Larsen, eds. (1987). Flora of Thailand 5: 1-470. The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department.

References