Ardisia elliptica, Duck’s Eye, Elliptical-Leaf Ardisia, Inkberry

Ardisia elliptica, commonly known as shoe button ardisia or duck’s-eyes, is an invasive shrub or small tree belonging to Myrsinaceae (Myrsine family). The plant’s native is uncertain although the original range has invariably included Indian Sub-continent (i.e. southern India and Sri Lanka) and south-eastern Asia (i.e. Taiwan, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines). It has been widely introduced and cultivated as an ornamental in warm locations throughout the world, with naturalization occurring in such places as Puerto Rico, some Caribbean islands, tropical Australia, several islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans including the State of Hawaii, and in southern Florida. It is a productive reproducer which has made it a successful invasive species in other locations in the tropics where it has been introduced as a garden ornamental.

 

Some of the popular common names of the plant are Duck’s Eye, Elliptical-Leaf Ardisia, Inkberry, ardisia, Seashore Ardisia, Shoe button, Shoebutton Ardisia, spear flower, China shrub, and jet berry. Genus name comes from the Greek word aradis meaning a point in reference to the pointed anthers of these flowering trees and shrubs. Specific epithet means elliptic in reference to the leaf shape. The common name of shoe button ardisia is in reference to the purported resemblance of the fruit to old-fashioned black shoe buttons. The common name of duck’s-eyes is in reference to the purported resemblance of the black fruits to the eyes of a flock of ducks hiding in the plant foliage. The plant is occasionally harvested from the wild for local use as food and medicine. It is often grown as an ornamental, being valued especially for its attractive fruit.

Shoebutton Ardisia Facts

Plant Description

Shoe button ardisia is a tropical to a semi-tropical broadleaf evergreen shrub or small tree that can reach up to 13 meters tall but is usually much smaller. The bole can be up to 20 cm in diameter. The plant is found growing in under story in tidal swamps, mangroves habitats, moist ravines and forests, riparian habitats, marsh islands, cypress stands, wet forests, monsoonal forests, wetlands and fallow fields, roadsides, scrubland, near villages, on field edges, in coastal areas, disturbed forest, mesic forest, lowland areas, along beaches, tidal riversides, peat-swamps, coastal berm, maritime hammock, hardwood hammock, mesic flat woods, and cabbage palm hammock. The plant prefers moist or even wet, fertile soil, and can succeed in clay soil as well. The plant grows a strong taproot, much-branched laterals, and fine roots with rhizomorphic tips.

Stems

Undamaged plants in forest habitats are characterized by a single main stem, producing short, spreading branches. Younger branches are 3-7 mm thick and are prominently angled and hairless.

Leaves

The simple leaves are alternately arranged along the stems and borne on stalks 5-20 mm long. These leaf stalks are either green or reddish in color. The leaf blades are 6-20 cm long and 1.5-7 cm wide and are oval or somewhat elongated in shape (i.e. elliptic or oblanceolate). They are somewhat leathery in nature and have entire margins, and have pointed or somewhat rounded tips (i.e. acute or obtuse apices). The leaves are also hairless and young foliage is often reddish in color.

Flowers

The flowers are borne on small branches that are 3-8 cm long emanating from the upper leaf forks of the main branches. The bases of the flower stalks are clustered together at or near the same point towards the end of the flowering branches (i.e. umbellate to racemose axillary inflorescences). These flower stalks are 1-2 cm long and are covered in tiny black spots. The flowers are 6-13 mm across and usually have five small sepals that are 1-3 mm long and five petals, both of which also have their outer surfaces covered in tiny black spots (i.e. they are black punctate). The petals are pale pink, pale lavender or whitish in color, somewhat leathery in nature, and are slightly joined together at their bases. These petals are up to 9 mm long and are somewhat elongated in shape (i.e. lanceolate) with pointed tips (i.e. acute or attenuate apices). The flowers also have five yellow stamens that surround a slightly longer style topped with a tiny pointed stigma. Flowering normally takes place in between February and April.

Fruit

Fertile flowers are followed by fleshy fruit that is 5-9 mm across and is rounded (i.e. globose or sub-globose) berries (actually drupes) that quickly turn from green to red when still quite immature. They eventually turn deep purplish or black in color at maturity and contain a single round hard seed that is about 5 mm across and is surrounded by a whitish-colored pulp.

Traditional uses and benefits of Shoebutton Ardisia

• The genus Ardisia is widely used as the traditional medicine to cure diseases like pulmonary tuberculosis, hepatitis, chronic bronchitis, and irregular menstruation.
• In Pakistani traditional medicine, its roots are used against fever, diarrhea, and rheumatism.
• In folkloric medicine, the leaves or roots are boiled and a decoction is drunk for pains at the heart.
• Leaves or the roots are used to treat fever, diarrhea, and liver poisoning.
• In traditional Thai medicine, it has antipyretic activity and is used in diarrhea, gonorrhea, and venereal diseases.
• It a medicinal plant traditionally used for alleviating chest pains, fever, diarrhea, liver poisoning, and parturition complications in Malaysia.
• In Orissa, India, the fruit is used for fits by the Kondh tribal community and for eye pain by the Poraja tribal community.
• The roots are used medicinally at childbirth.
• A decoction of the leaves is said to assuage retrosternal pains.
• The leaves are used to soothe and heal wounds in the Philippines.
• In Malaysia, a decoction of leaves is said to assuage retrosternal pains.
• A paste made from the leaves is used to treat herpes and measles.
• The fruits are used to cure diarrhea with fever in traditional Thai medicine.
• In Southeast Asia leaves are used to treat scabies, and fruit for intestinal worms.
• The Malays use a decoction of leaves to treat heart pains.
• Leaves used to treat scabies and intestinal worms.
• It can fight off free radicals which causes cancer, pre-mature ageing, and other diseases.
• Boiled leaves or roots used to treat heartache.
• In pharmacy, Shoebutton Ardisia has anti-platelet and anti-bacterial substances.

Culinary Uses

• Fruit is edible and tastes slightly sour and lacks flavor.
• Young leafy shoots can be eaten raw or cooked.
• In Orissa, the fruit is eaten by the Kondh, Poraja, Gadaba, and Bonda tribal communities, and the leaves are used as vegetables by the Gadaba tribal community.
• Young and fresh leaves are cooked as leafy vegetables and the ripe fruits are edible.
• Leaves and young shoots are eaten as vegetables; used as greens for a salad or cooked with meat or fish.
• Flowers and fruits are cooked as a flavoring for fish.
• In the Malay Peninsula, young shoots are eaten.

Other Facts

• The plant is a popular ornamental for growing in pots or in garden landscapes.
• The plant is useful for fuel and for use as vegetable stakes.
• When the ripe fruit is squeezed by hand, the liquid can make fingers purple.
• Individuals reach reproductive maturity in 2-4 years in the wild and 1-2 years in cultivation.
• Mature plants in the forest with lots of suns can produce 400 fruits.

Prevention and Control

Due to the variable regulations around (de)registration of pesticides, your national list of registered pesticides or relevant authority should be consulted to determine which products are legally allowed for use in your country when considering chemical control. Pesticides should always be used in a lawful manner, consistent with the product’s label.

Control

Physical/mechanical control

Hand-pulling of seedlings is effective when plants are small, if rather time-consuming. Medium-sized plants can be mown, but then regrowth must be managed, such as with herbicide applications.

Biological control

Ewe et al. made two surveys of central and northern peninsula Malaysia in 2004 and 2005 to look for potential bio-control agents, but found only generalist herbivores as natural enemies.

Chemical control

In areas with a dense groundcover of seedlings, a broadcast spray of glyphosate is effective, although desirable plants will also be killed if not carefully avoided. Mature shrubs can be treated with a basal application of triclopyr mixed with oil. PIER noted from work in Hawaii that it is susceptible to 2, 4-D, especially after mowing, while triclopyr, dicamba and metsulfuron are less effective. Glyphosate is also reported as effective as a foliar spray and as a basal bark treatment, with tebuthiuron, triclopyr, and triclopyr ester also proving effective. Siso and Burzycki found cut stump treatments with triclopyr to be 95% effective, though results were significantly different between sites, indicating that further study is needed.

 

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References

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