Combretum trifoliatum facts for kids

Combretum trifoliatum is a type of plant that usually grows as a vine. Sometimes, it can also be a small shrub. It belongs to the Combretaceae plant family. You can find this plant in many wet areas, from Myanmar across Southeast Asia and Wallacea all the way to New Guinea and Australia. What's really cool about it is that it can stay underwater for up to four months each year during floods! Even when flooded, its leaves keep working to make food, which is quite rare for plants in these areas. People in some places use parts of this plant in their traditional medicine.

Plant Description

This plant can grow as a vine or a shrub. Its main stem can be up to 4 centimeters (about 1.5 inches) thick. It is known as a "stout woody liana", which means it's a strong, woody vine.

Leaves and Flowers

The leaves of Combretum trifoliatum are about 8.5 to 16 centimeters long and 4 to 6.5 centimeters wide. Their small stems, called petioles, are about 0.3 to 0.5 centimeters long. Sometimes, the leaves have tiny tufts of hair called domatia.

The way the leaves grow depends on the shoot. On horizontal or slanted shoots, the leaves grow opposite each other. But on vertical shoots, they grow in a circle, or "whorled" pattern. Both young shoots and new buds are covered in dark brown hairs.

The flowers have a special cup-like part called a hypanthium, which is about 1.3 millimeters long. They also have small petals, about 1.1 millimeters long. Each flower has 10 stamens (the parts that make pollen) and a style (the part that receives pollen) about 4.5 millimeters long. The flowers grow at the very end of the branches.

Fruit and Seeds

The fruit of this plant is almost directly attached to the stem. It is about 35 to 40 millimeters long and 10 to 12 millimeters wide. The fruit has five long ridges and looks lobed when cut across. Inside, the seeds are about 15 to 20 millimeters long. The embryos inside the seeds also have five wing-like parts.

Surviving Floods

One amazing thing about this plant is that it keeps its leaves working to make food even when it's underwater during floods. Many other plants in its habitat lose their leaves or stop working when flooded, but Combretum trifoliatum keeps going!

Where It Grows

This plant is found in Southeast Asia, a region called Wallacea, and the larger Australian continent (also known as Sahul).

Countries and Regions

You can find Combretum trifoliatum in many places, including:

• Australia: Only in the Weipa area of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.
• Papua New Guinea: On the main island.
• Indonesia: In areas like Papua (province), Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Jawa, and Sumatera.
• Timor Leste.
• Malaysia: In Sabah, Sarawak, and Peninsular Malaysia.
• Brunei Darussalam.
• Thailand.
• Cambodia.
• Vietnam.
• Laos.
• Myanmar.

Plant Habitats

Combretum trifoliatum often grows in areas where forests have regrown after being disturbed, especially in wet places in Southeast Asia.

Swamp Forests and Rivers

In the Tonlé Sap floodplains, which are large areas that get flooded, this plant is common. It grows in swamp forests alongside other trees like Barringtonia acutangula and Diospyros cambodiana. It can also be found in scrublands, where it sometimes grows as a shrub instead of a vine.

Along the Mekong River at Pha Taem National Park, this plant is an "extreme rheophyte". This means it's a plant that is specially adapted to live in fast-flowing water. It can survive being completely underwater for up to four months during floods! It grows as low, clumping shrubs on sandy soils, even in cracks in rocks. Its seeds are spread by the moving water.

Local Names

In different places, people have different names for Combretum trifoliatum:

• In the Khmer language (spoken in Cambodia), it's called (voër) trâhs' or trâs.
• In the Vientiane region of Laos, it's known as ben nám.

Traditional Uses

This plant is used in traditional medicine in some countries.

• In Cambodia, people use the sap (juice) from the plant's stalk to help cure dysentery (a type of stomach illness).
• They also roast the fruit, mix it with palm sugar, and make it into balls. Chewing these balls is believed to be good for oral health.
• In Laos, the stem of the plant is also used for various purposes.

Plant History

The French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1757-1808) was the first to officially describe Combretum trifoliatum. He wrote about it in his book Choix de Plantes, dont la Plupart sont Cultivees dans le Jardin de Cels .... The entry for Combretum trifoliatum was published in 1804.