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Dog's tongue (Pseudelephantopus spicatus)

Dlium Dog's tongue (Pseudelephantopus spicatus)

Sandung or dog's-tongue (Pseudelephantopus spicatus) is a plant species in Asteraceae, perennial herbs, stems erect, 10-40 cm tall, inconspicuously ribbed, puberulous, grows wild on roadsides, open land and disturbed sites, often used to make brooms, animal feed and medicines.

P. spicatus has simple leaves, rosulate or alternate at base, 5-15 by 1.5-5 cm, obovate or oblanceolate, margin slightly serrate to entire, apex obtuse or rounded, base cuneate or attenuate and subcoriaceous. Upper surface puberulous without glands, lower surface puberulous with filiform hairs and capitate glands.



Lateral veins 9-15-paired. Petioles up to 2 cm long. Capitulescences terminal and axillary, capitula 1-4 aggregated in clusters supported by foliaceous bracts, clusters arranged in a spike. Capitula tubular, 14-17 mm long. Receptacle flat, 1-1.5 mm in diameters and glabrous.

Florets bisexual and fertile. Involucres oblong, in 2 series, 10-11 mm long. Phyllaries 8, decussate, light green, margin entire or piliferous and outer surface pilose without glands. The outer lanceolate and apicies acute. The inner ones obovate-lanceolate or oblong and apices acute.

Corollas salverform, white, zygomorphic and glabrous. Corolla tubes 5-9 mm long and corolla lobes 2.5-2.8 mm long. Anthers 1.5-2 mm long, apical appendage acute, base acute. Styles white, 5-9 mm long, branches ca. 2 mm long, inner surface covered with stigmatic papillae.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Cichorioideae
Tribe: Vernonieae
Subtribe: Elephantopinae
Genus: Pseudelephantopus Rohr in Skr. Naturhist.-Selsk. 2(1): 214 (1792)
Species: Pseudelephantopus spicatus (Juss. ex Aubl.) C.F.Baker in Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 12(5): 55 (1902)

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS

Distreptus replicatus Cass. in G.-F.Cuvier, Dict. Sci. Nat., ed. 2. 60: 601 (1830)
Distreptus spicatus (Juss. ex Aubl.) Cass. in G.-F.Cuvier, Dict. Sci. Nat., ed. 2. 13: 367 (1819)
Elephantopus spicatus Juss. ex Aubl. in Hist. Pl. Guiane 2: 808 (1775)

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Ageratum quadriflorum Blanco in Fl. Filip.: 624 (1837)
Distreptus spicatus var. interruptus Ram.Goyena in Fl. Nicarag. 2: 448 (1911)
Distreptus spicatus var. nicaraguensis Ram.Goyena (1911)
Elephantopus colimensis Sessé & Moc. in Naturaleza (Mexico City), ser. 2, 1(App.): 150 (1890)
Elephantopus dubius Blanco (1845)
Elephantopus glaber Sessé & Moc. in Fl. Mexic.: 197 (1894)
Elephantopus littoralis Sessé & Moc. (1890)
Elephantopus spicatus var. densiflorus Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 335 (1891)
Elephantopus spicatus var. flavidus Kuntze (1891)
Elephantopus spicatus var. laxiflorus Kuntze (1891)
Elephantopus spicatus var. lilacinus Kuntze (1891)
Elephantopus spicatus var. roseus Klatt in Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique 35: 279 (1896)
Elephantopus strigosus Willd. ex DC. in Prodr. 5: 87 (1836)
Matamoria spicata La Llave in P.de La Llave & J.M.de Lexarza, Nov. Veg. Descr. 1: 8 (1824)

PUBLICATIONS

Florence, J. & Hallé, N. (1986). Suite du catalogue des plantes a fleurs et Fougères des iles Australes. Rapa: 151-158. Direction des centres d'expérimentations nucléaires. Service mixte de contrôle biologique.

Fosberg, F.R., Sachet, M.-H., Oliver, R. (1979). A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae. Micronesica; Journal of the College of Guam 15: 41-295.

Koyama, H., Bunwong, S., Pornpongrungrueng, P. & Hind, D.J.N. (2016). Flora of Thailand 13(2): 143-428. The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department.

Liogier, A.H. (1996). Flora de la Española 8: 1-588. Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo.

Mao, A.A. & Dash, S.S. (2020). Flowering Plants of India an Annotated Checklist (Dicotyledons) 1: 1-970. Botanical Survey of India.

Plunkett, G.M., Ranker, T.A., Sam, C. & Balick, M.J. (2022). Towards a checklist of the vascular flora of Vanuatu. Candollea 77: 105-118.

Pruski, J.F. (ed.) (2018). Flora Mesoamericana 5(2): 1-608. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.

Robinson, H. & Funk, V. (2018). 190(1). Compositae-Vernonieae. Flora of Ecuador 94: 1-128. Gothenburg University.

Roskov Y. & al. (eds.) (2018). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands.

Whistler, W.A. (2022). Flora of Samoa Flowering Plants: 1-930. National Tropical Botanicl Garden. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

VERNACULAR NAME

English: Sandung, Dog's tongue
Indonesia: Sandung
Java: Sandung

Aryo Bandoro
Dlium TheDlium
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dlium

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