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Schumannianthus dichotomus, known as cool mat or murta, is a rhizomatous plant in the prayer-plant family, grown in wet, swampy ground in South and Southeast Asia mainly for its stems, which are split and woven into the traditional Shital pati sleeping mat. Its key requirement is steady moisture and partial shade.
Schumannianthus dichotomus, also known as cool mat, is a species of flowering plant first described by Roxburgh, with its current name after Gagnepain. The species belongs to the family Marantaceae and no subspecies are listed.
S. dichotomus is typically found in muddy riparian areas; it is known as Pati Doi in Assamese and Murta in Sylheti, Mostak, Pati bet patipata and paitara in Bengali; in Vietnamese it is called lùm nước; in Thai it is called Khla; in Myanmar is called Thin; in Chittagong it is called "Fadirjam (ফাডিরজাম)".
Geographically it is distributed in northeast Bangladesh, West Bengal, Assam, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and the Philippines.
The plant used for making the Shital pati a traditional bed mat in Bangladesh and East India. Traditional artisans make strips from the outer portion of the stem including the epidermal part. These split strips are processed and plaited into mats. Murta splits are also used for making prayer mats, baskets, bags, novelty items, etc. The strips from the pith portion are used as binding materials.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Schumannianthus dichotomus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
