While on a recent camping trip in the central mountain range of Taiwan, I came across these plants. The first was bush-like, about 2 meters high and about as wide. The striking feature was the fruit / berries found on it. The ripe ones, red in color, looked very much like cherry tomatoes. What I assume to be three stages of fruit development can be seen in the second photo (green, yellow, and red).
There is an additional photo of another plant in bloom.
If anyone knows either of these, I’d like to know the name.
Thanks.
I’ll try to remember to look them up in my tree & plant book tonight.
Posting here since the title is the one I wanted to use!
Can you identify these plants?
Number1
Number2
Number3
Number4
Number5
Number6
Number7
Number8… Beggar’s tick
Number9
Number10
Number11
Number12
I think several of your pics are this same plant, called 火炭母草 (Huotanmu Cao, the charcoal mother grass).
Persicaria chinensis (synonym Polygonum chinense), commonly known as creeping smartweed or Chinese knotweed, is a plant species from the family Polygonaceae.
It is widespread across China, Japan, the Indian Subcontinent, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. It is a common plant in Malaysia and Vietnam, where it is used in herbal remedies, such as for the treatment of dysentery, enteritis, and sore throat. It is a weed in some coastal areas of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. Persicari...
Eighth one in looks like Beggar’s tick.
Hi
Thanks for your help. I really appreciate. I added numbers to the photos.
And I will post your name suggestions and some more details for each.
Looking forward to better understand whether this is a beneficial or parasite weed.
Got it
@the_bear I will correct ASAP
I am told Number 7 is Ampalaya in tagalog… That is bittermelon, a good one!
Momordica charantia (colloquially: bitter melon; bitter apple; bitter gourd; bitter squash; balsam-pear; with many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.
Bitter melon originated from the South Indian state of Kerala and was introduced into China in the 14th century. It is widely used in the cuis...
I don’t know anything about plants, but we had a thread on Taiwan plants, and I saw something there that looked like your number 12, the last one in your series (of course, I could be wrong):
Thanks a lot, Almas John. That’s two mysteries solved. I don’t regard them as weeds. I regard them as wildflowers. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
I also often come across a strange plant that has tiny fern-like leaves which are so sensitive that if you touch any of the leaves, then all of the tiny leaves on that stem close up and stay closed for about 2 or 3 minutes. Here’s a picture of a whole patch of the “sensitive plant”:
[image]
And here’s a close up of one of them:
[image]
…
one of several species of Mimosa. Perhaps a prostrate mimosa, like Mimosa strigillosa, or the larger Mimosa pudica or Mimosa sensitiva. None native to Taiwan as far as I know.
Another choice is Chamberbitter (Phyllanthus urinaria). The true Mimosas have small purple pom-pom type flowers, the niruri or chamber bitter has greenish white, minute flowers that appear at axils of the leaves, with the seed capsules found under the leaves. The leaves are also sensitive.
The presence of thorns on t…
For Chinese names:
The first purple flower (morning glory): 牽牛花 qian1niu2hua1. Literally “leading cow (like to pasture or herding) flower.” Not sure why but maybe it climbs everywhere?
The “shy grass” (mimosa pudica): 含羞草 han2xiu1cao3. Literally “shy grass.”
