Eden

Penang Botanic Gardens Plant Collection

Tacca plantaginea (Hance) Drenth (DIOSCOREACEAE)

Posted at — Nov 13, 2019
False Tacca

Description

A perennial herb with cylindrical rhizome. Leaves 3-4, rosette, to c. 17 cm long, petiolate. Flowers clustered terminally on scape up to 7 cm long, up to 13-flowered; involucral bracts 4, fliliform bracts many. Flowers pedicellate, light green. Fruits a capsule, triangular, dehiscent into 3 valves.


Distribution

S. China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand

Uses

Used as a medicinal plant to treat diarrhoea, jaundice, high blood pressure, etc. Leaves and young inflorescences are sometimes eaten as vegetable after cooking.