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Wikstroemia indica
Also called Bootlace Plant, Indian Wikstroemia
In Singapore: Indian Stringbush, 了哥王 (Cultivated in Singapore)
Tiebush is a small evergreen shrub with glossy leaves, greenish-yellow flowers and red berries, native to forests and rocky slopes across southern and eastern Asia and northern Australia. It is grown mainly as a wild or landscape shrub rather than a common houseplant.
Wikstroemia indica, also known as tie bush, Indian stringbush, bootlace bush, or small-leaf salago (Chinese: 了哥王; pinyin: liǎo gē wáng; Vietnamese: dó liệt) is a small shrub with glossy leaves, small greenish-yellow flowers and toxic red fruits. It grows in forests and on rocky, shrubby slopes in central and southeastern China, Vietnam, India, Australia and the Philippines.
W. indica is toxic and the poisoning caused by W. indica leads to dizziness, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
It is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. As a traditional Chinese herb, this plant has long been employed as an antipyretic, detoxicant, expectorant, vermifuge, and abortifacient in clinical practice in China.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Wikstroemia indica 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
