Wong Nga Mu aka Penyapu Cina

Also called seleguri, tatak or karan(Bidayuh) in Sarawak.

The Ibans have good and apt names for plants and flowers in Sarawak. For example, this wong nga mu is penyapu cina. This was because in the olden days the Chinese also used to collect the stalks to make brooms. Today many people continue to do so in the rural areas as bamboo is harder to process.

Interestingly, this penyapu cina, or arrowleaf sida stems are used as rough cordage, sacking, and for making brooms. The stems have a high quality fiber and were once exported from India and elsewhere as “hemp” (Guzmán 1975, Holm and others 1997). (Wikipedia)

In the ancient days, many rural people would look at the flowers to tell the time of the day. In the early morning the flowers would open up and show their pretty faces. By one in the afternoon, the flowers would clamp up.

It is a wild floral plant found commonly in the Borneo Island. The Chinese especially the Foochows have found it a very useful as a health giving plant. Its roots have been used to brew a good nutritious broth with chicken.

After a bout of flu, soup made from the roots of this plant would bring back good health and strength to the patient.

The roots can be boiled with pork bones also.

My grandfather used to collect the stalks and used them to threaten my naughty cousin. Every rural Foochow child would remember being beaten by the stalks of this plant as they were more readily available than the cangkok manis stalks. It is also called wong nga yang *yellow flower child.