Codariocalyx motorius
Encyclopedia
Codariocalyx motorius (though often placed in Desmodium
), known as the Telegraph Plant or Semaphore Plant, is a tropical Asia
n shrub, one of a few plants capable of rapid movement
; others include Mimosa pudica
and the Venus Flytrap
.
It is widely distributed throughout Bangladesh
, Bhutan
, Cambodia
, China
, India
, Indonesia
, Laos
, Malaysia, Myanmar
, Nepal
, Pakistan
, Sri Lanka
, Taiwan
, Thailand
and Vietnam
. It can even be found on the Society Islands
, a remote chain of islands in the South Pacific. It produces small purple flowers. Telegraph Plant contains small amounts of tryptamine
alkaloid
s in leaves, stem and root, namely DMT
and 5-MeO-DMT
.
This plant is famous for its movement of small lateral leaflets at speeds rapid enough to be perceivable with the naked eye. This is a strategy to maximise sunlight by tracking the sun. Each leaf is equipped with a hinge that permits it to be moved in order to receive more sunlight, but the weight of these leaves means the plant must expend a lot of energy in moving it. To optimise movement of large leaves, each large leaf has two small leaflets at its base. These move constantly along an elliptical path, sampling the intensity of sunlight, and directing the large leaf to the area of most intensity.
The common name is due to the rotation of the leaflets with a period of about 3 to 5 minutes; this was likened to a semaphore telegraph, a structure with adjustable paddles that could be seen from a distance, the position of which conveyed a message in semaphore
, hence the common names.
The Tamils call this plant ThozhukaNNi (Tamil
: தொழுகண்ணி). It has been in use in Siddha medicine for centuries. It is a very useful remedy in adhering the cut ends of flesh and healing it. This is also used in curing snake bite poisons. Hence it is also called snake charmer's root. Hence it is also called Aravaattip pachchilai (Tamil
: அரவாட்டிப் பச்சிலை).
The plant is described in detail in Charles Darwin
's 1880 The Power of Movement in Plants
.
Desmodium
Desmodium is a genus in the flowering plant family Fabaceae, sometimes called tick-trefoil, tick clover or beggar lice. There are dozens of species and the delimitation of the genus has shifted much over time....
), known as the Telegraph Plant or Semaphore Plant, is a tropical Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n shrub, one of a few plants capable of rapid movement
Rapid plant movement
Rapid plant movement encompasses movement in plant structures occurring over a very short period of time, usually under one second. For example, the Venus Flytrap closes its trap in about 100 milliseconds. The Dogwood Bunchberry's flower opens its petals and fires pollen in less than 0.5 milliseconds...
; others include Mimosa pudica
Mimosa pudica
Mimosa pudica , is a creeping annual or perennial herb often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken, re-opening minutes later...
and the Venus Flytrap
Venus Flytrap
The Venus Flytrap , Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces...
.
It is widely distributed throughout Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Malaysia, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. It can even be found on the Society Islands
Society Islands
The Society Islands are a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. They are politically part of French Polynesia. The archipelago is generally believed to have been named by Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands;...
, a remote chain of islands in the South Pacific. It produces small purple flowers. Telegraph Plant contains small amounts of tryptamine
Tryptamine
Tryptamine is a monoamine alkaloid found in plants, fungi, and animals. It is based around the indole ring structure, and is chemically related to the amino acid tryptophan, from which its name is derived...
alkaloid
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...
s in leaves, stem and root, namely DMT
Dimethyltryptamine
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family. DMT is found in several plants, and also in trace amounts in humans and other mammals, where it is originally derived from the essential amino acid tryptophan, and ultimately produced by the enzyme INMT...
and 5-MeO-DMT
5-MeO-DMT
5-MeO-DMT is a powerful psychedelic tryptamine. It is found in a wide variety of plant and psychoactive toad species and, like its close relatives DMT and bufotenin , it has been used as an entheogen by South American shamans for thousands of years.-Chemistry:5-MeO-DMT was first synthesized in...
.
This plant is famous for its movement of small lateral leaflets at speeds rapid enough to be perceivable with the naked eye. This is a strategy to maximise sunlight by tracking the sun. Each leaf is equipped with a hinge that permits it to be moved in order to receive more sunlight, but the weight of these leaves means the plant must expend a lot of energy in moving it. To optimise movement of large leaves, each large leaf has two small leaflets at its base. These move constantly along an elliptical path, sampling the intensity of sunlight, and directing the large leaf to the area of most intensity.
The common name is due to the rotation of the leaflets with a period of about 3 to 5 minutes; this was likened to a semaphore telegraph, a structure with adjustable paddles that could be seen from a distance, the position of which conveyed a message in semaphore
Flag semaphore
Semaphore Flags is the system for conveying information at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags, rods, disks, paddles, or occasionally bare or gloved hands. Information is encoded by the position of the flags; it is read when the flag is in a fixed position...
, hence the common names.
The Tamils call this plant ThozhukaNNi (Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
: தொழுகண்ணி). It has been in use in Siddha medicine for centuries. It is a very useful remedy in adhering the cut ends of flesh and healing it. This is also used in curing snake bite poisons. Hence it is also called snake charmer's root. Hence it is also called Aravaattip pachchilai (Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
: அரவாட்டிப் பச்சிலை).
The plant is described in detail in Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's 1880 The Power of Movement in Plants
The Power of Movement in Plants
The Power of Movement in Plants is a book by Charles Darwin on phototropism and other types of movement in plants. This book continues his work in producing evidence for his theory of natural selection...
.
Synonyms
C. motorius has a considerable number of nomenclatural and taxonomic synonyms:- Codariocalyx gyrans (L. f.) Hassk.
- Desmodium gyrans (L.) DC.
- Desmodium gyrans (L. f.) DC.
- Desmodium gyrans (L.) DC. var. roylei (Wight & Arn.)Baker
- Desmodium motorium (Houtt.) Merr.
- Desmodium roylei Wight & Arn.
- Hedysarum gyrans L. f.
- Hedysarum motorium Houtt.
- Hedysarum motorius Houtt.
- Meibomia gyrans (L. f.) Kuntze
External links
- Trout’s Notes on the Genus Desmodium Chemistry, ethnomedicine, pharmacology, synonyms and miscellany (pdf)