Osbeckia chinensis amongst the grasses

When I and my family was presented with the opportunity to Nueva Vizcaya to visit some friends, I had my mind set on finding Ceropegia (Brachystelma) merrillii (family Apocynaceae) and Iphigenia indica (family Colchiaceae) which are rare plants recorded from grasslands. On the second day of our stay, I found habitat which I thought to be suitable for both plants and accordingly set off the following morning. The effort was uneventful (which is another way of saying that it was a failure), but I did find a small colony of Osbeckia chinensis, the sole representative of this genus in the Philippines. The gracile plants were scrambling among the coarse grasses, with the leaves confined only on the upper portions of the stems; the leaves were mostly suffused with anthocyanin pigments.

Osbeckia belongs to family Melastomataceae, which contains the very popular Medinilla and the ubiquitous Melastoma. A widespread species, O. chinensis occurs from India and Nepal to Indochina, China, Japan, southwards to the Philippines and Malaysia, to Australia. As can be expected from such a wide-ranging species, a certain degree of variation is inherent, with some plants having relatively narrower leaves and longer stems than the others from different areas. Philippine plants, which are known from almost the entirety of Luzon as well as the islands of Busuanga, Culion, Guimaras, Panay, and Mindanao, often have wiry stems and very narrow leaves. The plants I found were no exception, and if it weren't for the flowers, I might have not noticed their presence at all.

The genus Osbeckia was erected by Carolus Linnaeus and named after Swedish explorer and naturalist Pehr Osbeck. The species O. chinensis is used medicinally as a treatment for cough and fevers, as well as diarrhea and dysentery. But my interest, however, is horticultural rather than medicinal- let's see how my seeds will fare 😀