Pink Failure. Urena sinuata, Burr Mallow, Kerandangan, Senggigi, Lombok, Indonesia
The Latin name of this pantropical invasive plant derives from Malayalam, spoken on what was once called the Malabar Coast of Western India. It seems great Carolus Linnaeus took up this name from the work of that incredibly versatile and adventurous Dutch seafarer, explorer, botanist, anthropologist, governor of parts of West India on the behalf of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC), Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein (1636-1691). During the Dutch colonisation of what is today Indonesia (since 1945), much was done to make the huge colony profitable to the 'motherland'. It was in fact to that end that the famous botanical garden at Bogor ('s Lands Plantentuin), just south of Jakarta, was established. Not a botanical garden in the sense of 'prettiness', but a true working and research place to determine which plants could be of some use in the agriculture the Dutch developed here. Incidentally, the Dutch did not stick to native Indonesian plants, but also imported new stock from far-off places. A good example is the cinchona shrub which was 'stolen' from South America in the middle of the nineteenth century and hugely developed in Indonesia so that by the Second World War more than 90% of the world's production of quinine (the only cure then for malaria) was in the hands of the Dutch.
The Dutch attempted in 1905 to use our Urena for making fibrous sacking in the way of jute. To that end wild Urena was collected in the Indramayu Regency of West Java and processed. Apparently this work was not economically feasible and it soon came to an end. Regardless, this Burr Mallow delights me everytime I hike the road up into the foothills of Mount Duduk.
Pink Failure. Urena sinuata, Burr Mallow, Kerandangan, Senggigi, Lombok, Indonesia
The Latin name of this pantropical invasive plant derives from Malayalam, spoken on what was once called the Malabar Coast of Western India. It seems great Carolus Linnaeus took up this name from the work of that incredibly versatile and adventurous Dutch seafarer, explorer, botanist, anthropologist, governor of parts of West India on the behalf of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC), Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein (1636-1691). During the Dutch colonisation of what is today Indonesia (since 1945), much was done to make the huge colony profitable to the 'motherland'. It was in fact to that end that the famous botanical garden at Bogor ('s Lands Plantentuin), just south of Jakarta, was established. Not a botanical garden in the sense of 'prettiness', but a true working and research place to determine which plants could be of some use in the agriculture the Dutch developed here. Incidentally, the Dutch did not stick to native Indonesian plants, but also imported new stock from far-off places. A good example is the cinchona shrub which was 'stolen' from South America in the middle of the nineteenth century and hugely developed in Indonesia so that by the Second World War more than 90% of the world's production of quinine (the only cure then for malaria) was in the hands of the Dutch.
The Dutch attempted in 1905 to use our Urena for making fibrous sacking in the way of jute. To that end wild Urena was collected in the Indramayu Regency of West Java and processed. Apparently this work was not economically feasible and it soon came to an end. Regardless, this Burr Mallow delights me everytime I hike the road up into the foothills of Mount Duduk.