Plectranthus parviflorus
Plectranthus parviflorus
Safety & Hazards
None known
Cultivation Details
Plectranthus parviflorus is a plant of drier tropical and subtropical areas[1]. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 18 - 28°c, but can tolerate 6 - 36°c[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,500 - 1,700mm, but tolerates 1,000 - 2,300mm[2]. Plants can produce a crop with as little as 100mm of rainfall[1]. Grows best in a sunny position in a well-drained soil, preferably sandy to loamy[2]. Prefers a pH in the range 6 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7[2]. The tubers are produced in clusters at the base of the stems - they are ready about 4 - 5 months after planting[1, 2]. Yields of 3.7 - 7.5 tonnes per hectare have been obtained[1]. The plant is sometimes cultivated for its edible tubers[3], and is also sometimes grown as an ornamental - several named ornamental forms have been developed[4]. All parts of the plant are aromatic[2].
References
- [1]Vegetables in the Tropics — Tindall. H. D. · MacMillan, Oxford. · 1983 · ISBN 0-333-24268-8 ↩︎An excellent, in-depth look at the main vegetable crops that can be grown in the Tropics, plus many less well-known plants.
- [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
- [3]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
- [4]Native Plants Hawaii — http://nativeplants.hawaii.edu/plant/ ↩︎A website containing information on a range of native Hawaiian plants, with descriptions, habitat, traditional uses etc.
- [5]Flora Malesiana Series 1 — Various · Nationaal Herbarium Nederiand, Universiteit Leiden branch · http://www.archive.org ↩︎A massive treatment of the plants of the Malaysian Archipelago. Much of it has been made available to download from the Internet
- [6]Plectranthus: A review of ethnobotanical uses — Lukhoba C.W.; Simmonds M.S.J.; Paton A.J. · 2006 ↩︎An excellent guide to the uses of Plectranthus species, giving the basic uses and the literature supporting this.
- [7]Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants — http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/cd-keys/rfk/index.html ↩︎An online resource giving botanical information, and a little bit about plant usage, for over 2,700 species of plants found in the Australian rainforest.