On an autumn morning in Dhaka, the front wall of a house on Road 4 of Banani DOHS is covered by Antigonon leptopus, known in Bengali as ononto-lota. Long sprays of pink flowers sway above the green leaves. The climber was described in Samakal by an agriculturist and environment specialist.
The plant comes from Mexico, which is why many countries call it the Mexican creeper. Its heart-shaped pink and white flowers, borne in long chains, give it the name chain of love, and some Bengali speakers now call it prem-lota after that. Another English name is coral vine. The writer notes an account that people in Mexico once ate its seeds in hard times, making popped grain and flour from them.
The species belongs to the Polygonaceae family and was first described in 1838 by the English botanists William Jackson Hooker and George Arnott Walker-Arnott. The second part of its name comes from Greek words meaning slender foot or stem, a reference to its thin stems and tendrils.
Coral vine is a fast-growing perennial that can reach 15 metres and, given support, climb to a fourth-floor roof. It forms well-developed tubers underground, so when the top growth is killed by fire or bad weather, new shoots come up from the tuber. It also grows from seed.
The leaves are heart-shaped with rough edges and pointed tips. Flowers open on hanging sprays at the ends of the stems; each has five petal-like tepals and eight stamens. The fruit is shiny, brown and cone-shaped, about a centimetre long, held in papery dry sepals that help the seeds float and spread on water.
The writer points out that the vine is invasive by nature, yet it is grown by gardeners worldwide for its flowers. Anyone planting it on a wall, gate or trellis needs to keep its spread in check by regular cutting back. The article also mentions its use in folk medicine in several regions; that is not medical advice.
Photo: Coral vine in flower on Maui, Hawaii, Forest & Kim Starr / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: samakal
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