Effects and functions of large-bracted water bamboo leaves

Water bamboo leaf belongs to the Angiospermae, Monocotyledoneae, Commelinidae, Commelinales, Commelinaceae, and Commelinoideae.

A creeping herb with large-bracted water bamboo leaves, the roots are slender and fibrous, less than 1mm in diameter; the stems and petioles are covered with soft hairs on one side or all. The inflorescence is usually 1-2, rarely 3 to more, gathered at the top of the capitulate branch in a head or nearly head shape, with a diameter of 1 cm; the pedicel is relatively thick, 2.5-5 cm long; the involucral bracts are lanceolate, 1.2-2.5 cm long, 6-8 mm wide; the pedicel is short and thick; the bracts are large and persistent, membranous, annular, 5-6 mm long, and arranged in an inseparable shingle-like manner; the calyx is long annular, about 4 mm long, the flowers are small, light blue or blue-purple; there are 2 growing pistils, 2-4 declining pistils, the filaments are hairy or the growing filaments are finely hairy; the ovary is long annular, glabrous, about 2 mm long, and the style is almost the same length as the ovary. The capsule is long and circular, with three edges, and each chamber contains 2 seeds; the seeds are wrinkled. The flowering period is May and the fruiting period is August to November.

It is produced in Mengla, Menglun, Jinping, Luchun and other places; it grows by the rivers and under the jungles at an altitude of 530-850 meters. Spread across Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. There are also some in central and northern Cambodia and the Philippines.

A perennial herb (horizontal rhizomes can be seen in some specimens). There are many fibrous roots, 0.5-1mm in diameter, and they are very densely covered with long hair. The petiole is sterile, very short, and the fertile stems are generally 2, arising from the tuft of leaves below the petiole, long and creeping, with elevated apex, and roots at the nodes, 20-60 cm long, finely pubescent all around or only on one side, with nodes up to 10 cm long. The leaves are gathered in a rosette on the petiole, sword-shaped, 20-30 cm long, 1.2-1.8 cm wide, with long and fine eyelashes on the lower edge, no hair on the upper side, and short hairs or no hair on the lower side; the leaves on the fertile stem are ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3-12 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, no hair on both sides or with rough hairs on the back, and the petiole is covered with long and fine soft hairs all around or has bristles only along one side of the mouth. There are usually 2-3 scorpion-shaped cymes, rarely solitary; the bracts are divided but smaller; the cymes are capitate because the flowers are extremely clustered, with a 2-3 cm long peduncle; the bracts are ring-shaped, 5-7 mm long, and fall off early; the pedicel is very short, extending during the fruiting period, 2-3 mm long, and obviously bent; the calyx is herbaceous, ovate-elliptical, shallowly boat-shaped, about 4 mm long; the flowers are dark blue. Capsule broadly oval-triangular, 4 mm long. The seeds are yellow-brown, with radiating patterns emanating from the embryo cover, and have milky white fine reticulations, without holes. The fruit season is from May to November.