Passion-Flower Family Plant: White Alder (Turnera subulata)

Common names:
English: White Alder, Politician's Flower, White Butter Cup, W. Indian holly, sage rose, holly rose
Indonesia:  Bunga pukul delapan, lidah kucing (Java)

White Alder is a perennial herb, often woody at the base, 30-80 cm high, with a frequently very strong taproot. Native to West Indies, Brazil, and Central America, White Alder sports white flowers with yellow halo around black centers. Stems cylindrical, leafy over a considerable length, densely hairy. Leaves not crowded, ovate-elliptic or ovate-oblong, very distinctly dentate-serrate. Flowers in the higher leaf-axils. Petals with a slightly hairy, 3-4 mm long claw, blade obovate, broadly rounded, entire, above the claw glabrous, finally above the base much spreading or subreflexed.

In Indonesia, leaves and roots of this medicinal plant commonly used to treat digestive disorders (such as abdominal bloating, no appetite), arthritic joints accompanied by swelling, swelling due to bruising, and weak after recovering from serious illness.

There are a few of these White Alder plants in the side yard, along with some Yellow Alder plants at home in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta, Indonesia.

Scientific Classification of White Alder (Turnera subulata)

Kingdom Plantae Haeckel, 1866 – Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants

Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants

Division (Phylum) Magnoliophyta - Cronquist, Takhtajan & W. Zimmermann, 1966 - Flowering Plants

Class Magnoliopsida Brongniart, 1843 – Dicotyledons

Order Order Malpighiales C. Martius, 1835

Family Passifloraceae A.L. de Jussieu ex Roussel, 1806, nom. cons. - Passion-Flower family

Subfamily Turneroideae (Kunth ex A.P. de Candolle, 1828) Eaton, 1836

Genus Turnera C. Linnaeus, 1753

Species T. subulata

Botanical/Scientific name: Turnera subulata Sm. (1817)

references:

• commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Turnera_subulata
• www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/White%20Alder.html
• www.iptek.net.id/ind/pd_tanobat/view.php?mnu=2&id=209
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Scientific_classification
• http://taxonomicon.taxonomy.nl/TaxonTree.aspx?id=96838&tree=0.1
• www.biolib.cz/en/taxonposition/id106739/
• zipcodezoo.com/Plants/T/Turnera_subulata/

Yellow Alder and White Alder Flower

Photos of  White Alder  (Turnera subulata) Flowers were taken using a camera phone Sony Ericsson K800i in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta, Indonesia.

 TODAY'S FLOWER

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