Diamond Burbark

Gebel Elba.

Tropical regions.

Wadi beds and hillsides.

Perennial.

Triumfetta indica Lamarck (Encycl. 3: 420. 1792) is not based on Bartramia indica Linnaeus (Sp. Pl. 1: 389. 1753) and therefore blocks the transfer of B. indica to Triumfetta; hence the correct name for this species is T. rhomboidea.

The whole plant is used medicinally.

This species is not common in our area as suggested by Parker (l.c.). It is confused with Triumfetta pentandra A. Rich, which it resembles in leaf shape. The two can be easily distinguished with the help of key characters.

The sub-mucilaginous leaves are used as a pot herb in some parts of India. The leaves, flowers and fruits are demulcent, astringent and given in gonorrhoea. The bark and fresh leaves are used in diarrhoea and dysentry. The seeds are said to possess anthelmintic and aperient properties.

Subshrubs or herbs. Branchlets gray-brown tomentose. Petiole 1-5 cm; lower leaf blades broadly ovate-orbicular, rhomboid, or broadly ovate, 3-lobed, 3-9.5 × 2-8.5 cm, abaxially stellate pilose, adaxially sparsely hairy, basal veins 3-5, 2 lateral ones reaching tip of lobes, base broadly cuneate or rounded, margin irregularly bluntly serrate, apex acute; upper leaf blades oblong-lanceolate, not lobed. Cymes 3-5 per axil; peduncle to 2 mm. Flower buds cylindrical, apex slightly wider, ca. 4 mm. Pedicel less than 1 mm. Sepals narrowly oblong, 4.5-5.5 mm, villous, appendaged at tip. Petals yellow, slightly shorter than sepals, hairy along margins. Stamens 10. Ovary spiny. Capsule globose, ca. 3 mm in diam., spiny, indehiscent; spines ca. 2 mm, gray-yellow puberulent, tip hooked. Seeds 2-6. Fl. summer-autumn. 2n = 32.

Much branched, 0.5-2 m tall herb or undershrub. Leaves 3-7-costate, variable in shape, generally rhomboid-ovate, 3-9 cm long, 2.5-7.5 cm broad, stellate or simple hairy to glabrescent, palmately 3-lobed or not, acute at the apex, cuneate-cordate at base, irregularly serrate; petiole up to 3.5 cm long, short in terminal leaves, hairy; stipules subulate, c. 3-4 mm long. Cymes terminal or antiphyllous. Flowers golden yellow, c. 5-6 mm across, subsessile. Buds oblong, constricted in the middle. Sepals lorate, strongly cucullate and awned at the apex, hairy outside. Petals oblong-obovate, equal to or slightly shorter than the sepals, hairy at the base. Stamens 15, rarely fewer, filaments as long as sepals, papillose. Carpels 2-3, syncarpous; ovary subglobose, 2-3-loculed, with uncinate hairs; style subulate, stigma 2-3-lobed. Capsule globose or subglobose, indehiscent, tomentose, c. 5-6 mm in diameter including 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous, uncinate spines.

Distribution: Throughout the tropics.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan [throughout tropics; type from West Indies].

Fl.Per.: August-November.

Forest margins, open areas, wastelands; 100-1500 m.

Bartramia indica Linnaeus; Triumfetta angulata Lamarck; T. bartramii Linnaeus, nom. illeg. superfl.; T. indica Lamarck; T. trilocularis Roxburgh; T. velutina Vahl.

rhomboidea: rhomboid or more or less diamond-shaped, referring to the leaves.

Usually annual or rarely perennial herb, up to 2 m tall but usually shorter. Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, unlobed to distinctly 3 lobed, 2.5 - 15 cm long, 3-7 veined from the base; apex acute; base cordate or truncate; margin irregularly serrate. Flowers in axillary cymes, yellow. Sepals c. 5 mm long, often tipped dark red, linear, narrower and longer than the petals. Fruit spherical, tomentose, 4-5 mm in diameter including the short bristles or aculei.

Pan-tropical and subtropical, including South Africa.

Triumfetta rhomboidea, commonly known as diamond burbark, Chinese bur, or kulutkulutan in Tagalog, is a shrub that is extensively naturalised in tropical regions. It is thought that to have come to Australia from China. Its bark—sometimes called burbark--makes a kind of jute.

The taxon was first formally described in 1760 by botanist Nikolaus von Jacquin.