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Family Rubiaceae
Talig-harap
Mussaenda anisophylla Vidal

Scientific names Common names
Mussaenda anisophylla Vidal Ayonakilat (Lan.)
  Bodas (Ig.)
  Buyon (Bis.)
  Lalabo (Pang.)
  Talig-harap (Tag.)
  Tiñga-tiñga (Tag.)

Botany
Talig-harap is a shrub growing 3 to 8 meters in height. Branchlets are rather lax and hairy, the older ones grayish-white and lenticelled. Pairs of leaves are diverse in either size or shape; oblong-ovate to subelliptic, the smaller ones 5 to 13 centimeters long, the larger ones 18 to 27 centimeters long; and softly hairy on both surfaces, but especially on the lower. Flowers are cymosely clustered on terminal, small, and spreading panicles. Calyx is covered with sharp-pointed, appressed, straight and stiff hairs; the outer sepal extends into a broad, slenderly pedicelled, persistent, whitish, ovate bract 4 to 5.5 centimeters long. Corolla is densely hairy, tubular, and yellow in the lobes. Fruit is ellipsoid, pale green, 1.5 to 2 centimeters long, smooth with age, and warty.

Distribution
- Endemic species found in forests at low and medium altitudes, ascending to 600 meters in Pangasinan, Bataan, Laguna, Quezon, and Albay Provinces in Luzon; and in Mindanao.

Parts used
Leaves.

Uses

Folkloric
In the Philippines, decoction of fresh leaves is given for asthma.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

January 2011


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