''Strobilanthes tonkinensis'' is a species of herbaceous plant native to Southeast Asia. It is used as a flavoring for tea and other food.

Names

Many sources still refer to the plant by the synonym ''Semnostachya menglaensis'', but this name is not a

validly published name In botanical nomenclature, a validly published name is a name that meets the requirements in the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (''ICN'') for valid publication. Valid publication of a name represents the minim ...

as that

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

where the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

is located was not specified. The genus name ''

Strobilanthes ''Strobilanthes'' is a genus of about 350 species of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Acanthaceae, mostly native plant, native to tropical Asia and Madagascar, but with a few species extending north into temperateness, temperate r ...

'' can be broken down into () meaning 'pine cone', and () meaning 'flower'. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''tonkinensis'' refers to the type locality of

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the ...

(Northern Vietnam). The epithet ''nivea'' derives from the latin meaning 'snow white', perhaps referring to the white flowers. The epithet ''menglaensis'' refers to

Mengla County Mengla County (; Tai Lue: , ''Mueang La''; , ; ) is a county under the jurisdiction of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in far southern Yunnan province, China. ''Meng'' is a variation of ''Mueang''. Name "Mongla", "Mengla" and "Meun ...

in China. In Chinese it is called ( "

glutinous rice Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated plants or domesticated animals. Domesticated animals tend to be smaller and less aggressive than their wild counterparts; they may also hav ...

fragrance"), because it smells and tastes like sticky rice. In Thai, it is called (). The

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

names for the plant include and . refers to members of ''Strobilanthes'' as a whole, and refers to

Northern Vietnam Northern Vietnam or '' Tonkin'' () is one of three geographical regions in Vietnam. It consists of three geographic sub-regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sôn ...

. The ''sarmentosus'' variety is called .

Khmu language Khmu is the language of the Khmu people of the northern Laos region. It is also spoken in adjacent areas of Vietnam, Thailand and China. Khmu lends its name to the Khmuic branch of the Austroasiatic language family, the latter of which also ...

speakers in Laos call it .

Uses

The aroma evokes sticky rice, but has also been compared to pandan. Dried leaves of ''S. tonkinensis'' are used to flavor black tea and

pu'er tea ''Pu'er'' or ''pu-erh'' is a variety of fermented tea traditionally produced in Yunnan Province, China. Pu- erh tea is made from the leaves of the Yunnan tea plant ''Camellia sinensis var. assamica'', which is a specific variety of tea plant t ...

to impart its fragrance and sticky rice flavor. The use of the leaves in tea has a long tradition among the

Dai people The Dai people ( Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; ; ; ; , ; , ; zh, c=, p=Dǎizú) are several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture ...

. It can also be used as a flavoring for

jiuqu ''Jiuqu'', also simply known as ''qu'', is a type of dried fermentation starter used in the production of traditional Chinese alcoholic beverages. The word ''jiuqu'' specifically refers to a type of yeast () used to make alcohol () such as ''huan ...

cookie A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

s, ice cream, and

dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cu ...

. The herb can also be mixed with

slaked lime Calcium hydroxide (traditionally called slaked lime) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca( OH)2. It is a colorless crystal or white powder and is produced when quicklime ( calcium oxide) is mixed with water. Annually, approxim ...

for

betel nut chewing Betel nut chewing, also called betel quid chewing or areca nut chewing, is a practice in which areca nuts (also called "betel nuts") are chewed together with slaked lime and betel leaves for their stimulant and narcotic effects, the primar ...

or added to tobacco to make those strong flavors more palatable. Outside of food or drink, the leaves can be used to give laundry a fresh scent.

Taxonomy

''S. tonkinensis'' appears related to '' S. maculatus'', but has much larger flowers, leaves, and

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s; as well as having denser

trichome Trichomes (; ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant ...

s. '' S. spathulatibracteata'' also is morphologically similar. ''S. tonkinensis'' was briefly in the ''

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

''Sympagis''. The subgenus was subsequently elevated to genus status, before being determined to be a synonym of ''Strobilanthes'', which now has no subgenera. The

variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''Strobilanthes tonkinensis'' var. ''sarmentosus'' is so named because it has sarmentose (long and slender) branches. When the

chloroplast genome Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), also known as plastid DNA (ptDNA) is the DNA located in chloroplasts, which are photosynthetic organelles located within the cells of some eukaryotic organisms. Chloroplasts, like other types of plastid, contain a genome s ...

was sequenced, it was compared to other species within

Acanthaceae Acanthaceae () is a Family (biology), family (the acanthus family) of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are Tropics, tropical Herbaceous plant, herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are epip ...

and the below

maximum likelihood In statistics, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is a method of estimating the parameters of an assumed probability distribution, given some observed data. This is achieved by maximizing a likelihood function so that, under the assumed stati ...

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In ...

was produced. The numbers on the nodes are the bootstrap values.

Description

The plant is herbaceous with a woody base and shrubby, roughly four-sided, pubescent branches. When dry the plant is fragrant. The leaves are ~23×12 cm or a little smaller and egg-shaped, starting wide and narrowing quickly to the

acuminate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics) A-Bomb Abomination Absorbing Man Abraxas Abyss Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...

(tip). The margins are nearly entire, with irregular sinuous 'teeth'. The leaf

epidermal The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermal layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water relea ...

cells are hexagonal with straight cell walls. The leaf

stoma In botany, a stoma (: stomata, from Greek language, Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth"), also called a stomate (: stomates), is a pore found in the Epidermis (botany), epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exc ...

ta are hypostomatic (on the

abaxial {{Short pages monitor