Caudanthera edulis
| Caudanthera edulis | |
|---|---|
| Caudanthera edulis flowers | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Gentianales |
| Family: | Apocynaceae |
| Genus: | Caudanthera |
| Species: | C. edulis
|
| Binomial name | |
| Caudanthera edulis (Edgew.) Meve & Liede
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Caudanthera edulis is a succulent subshrub flowering plant that belongs to the genus Caudanthera in the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the family Apocynaceae. This species is native to Niger, northeast Tropical Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to northwest India and is found in desert and dry shrubland.[1]
Common names include situn[2] in Pakistan, doghabis and howraghu in the Hormozgan province of Iran[3] and pimpa in the Thar Desert of northeast India.[4]
Uses
The name Boucerosia edulis (the basionym of the current name) was given in 1862 by the Irish botanist Michael Edgeworth. The specific name edulis means edible in Latin. Edgeworth had specimens from Sindh and Multan in present-day Pakistan. He stated, in Latin, "edible, subacid, grows wild among Salvadora trees, there it is harvested to be sold in markets under the name Situn."[2]
The plant is also eaten in Iran[3] and the Thar Desert of northeast India.[4]
References
- ^ a b "Caudanthera edulis (Edgew.) Meve & Liede". Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
- ^ a b Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham (1862). "Florula Mallica". Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany. VI: 205. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
Edulis, subacida, sponte in Salvadoretis crescit, ibi colligenda in foro venditur sub nomine Situn.
- ^ a b Safa, Omid; Soltanipoor, Mohammad Amin; Rastegar, Soheil; Dehkordi, Khadijeh Nourbakhsh; Ghannadi, Alireza (2013). "An ethnobotanical survey on Hormozgan province, Iran". Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine. 3 (1): 64–81. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
- ^ a b Singh, Jai Prakash; Kumar, Suresh; Kannan, Venkatesan Kannan; Kulloli, Ravikiran (2016). "Conservation status and utilization of Caralluma edulis: an important threatened medicinal plant species of the Thar Desert, India". Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 63 (4): 721–732. Retrieved 2 February 2026.