If you would like to support this site, please consider Donating.
Useful Tropical Plants

Geophila obvallata

(Schumach.) Didr.

Rubiaceae

+ Synonyms

Carinta ioides Pic.Serm.

Carinta obvallata (Schumach.) G.Taylor

Geophila involucrata Hiern

Geophila ioides K.Schum.

Psychotria obvallata Schumach.

Common Name:

Geophila obvallata
Leaves and fruits
Photograph by: Ehoarn Bidault
Creative Commons License
Geophila obvallata Geophila obvallata Geophila obvallata

General Information

Geophila obvallata is a perennial plant, usually woody at the base, with creeping stems up to 60cm long that are often underground and can persist for several years[
308
Title
Flora Zambesiaca
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
]. Another report says that the roots are 6 - 9 metres long, rooting at the nodes[
515
Title
Flora of Tropical Africa Vol 1 - 8
Publication
 
Author
Var
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
L.Reeve & Co.; Ashford, Kent.
Year
1868 - 1917
ISBN
 
Description
Very little information on habitat, range and uses, but gives good descriptions of the plants. It can be downloaded from the internet.
].
The leaves are sometimes gathered from the wild for local use as a food and medicine.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

308
Title
Flora Zambesiaca
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
,
515
Title
Flora of Tropical Africa Vol 1 - 8
Publication
 
Author
Var
Website
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Publisher
L.Reeve & Co.; Ashford, Kent.
Year
1868 - 1917
ISBN
 
Description
Very little information on habitat, range and uses, but gives good descriptions of the plants. It can be downloaded from the internet.

Range

West tropical Africa - Sierra Leone to DR Congo.

Habitat

Sandy and grassy places, in bushland, Brachystegia and Cryptosepalum woodlands, evergreen forest floors, at elevations from around 30 - 1,740 metres[
308
Title
Flora Zambesiaca
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
].

Properties

Edibility Rating *
Medicinal Rating *  *
HabitPerennial
Height0.20 m
Cultivation StatusWild

Cultivation Details

Not known

Edible Uses

Leaves - cooked[
332
Title
The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa.
Publication
 
Author
Burkil. H. M.
Publisher
Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew.
Year
1985 - 2004
ISBN
 
Description
Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
]. They are eaten as a vegetable by barren women suffering from abdominal troubles[
332
Title
The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa.
Publication
 
Author
Burkil. H. M.
Publisher
Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew.
Year
1985 - 2004
ISBN
 
Description
Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
].

Medicinal

The leaves are cooked with food and used to treat diarrhoea in children[
46
Title
Dictionary of Economic Plants.
Publication
 
Author
Uphof. J. C. Th.
Publisher
Weinheim
Year
1959
ISBN
-
Description
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -
Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2024-03-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Geophila+obvallata>

Add a Comment:

If you have any useful information about this plant, please leave a comment. Comments have to be approved before they are shown here.