Banalo
Thespesia populnea · Portia tree
- Names in the book
- Babuy or Bobuy gubat, Tag.; Bulakan, Vis.
- Colours
- floweryellow, purplecentrecrimson
- Native range
- Tropical coasts worldwide
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Mandaloya Tayabas, Iloilo.
- Family
- Malvaceae, filed in the book under Malvaceæ
- Printed as
- Thespesia populnea, Corr.
- Sources
- Page 47 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Thespesia populnea, commonly known as the portia tree, Pacific rosewood, Indian tulip tree, or milo, among other names, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a tree found commonly on coasts around the world. Although it is confirmed to be native only to the Old World tropics, other authorities consider it to have a wider, possibly pantropical native distribution. It is thought to be an invasive species in Florida and Brazil.
Excerpt from “Thespesia populnea” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 146 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 15 provinces, most often Palawan (9), Davao Oriental (4), Quezon (3), Cagayan (2), Metropolitan Manila (2), Aklan (2), Bohol (1), Bulacan (1), and 7 more.
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The fruit yields a yellow juice which is used locally in the itch and other cutaneous troubles, after first washing the affected part with a decoction of the roots and leaves. The bark is astringent and is used as a decoction in the treatment of dysentery and hemorrhoids.
Botanical description
A tree of the second order with leaves 4–5′ long, sparse, 5-nerved, heart-shaped, broad, acute, entire, glabrous, 6 small glands on the lower face of the base. Petioles of equal length with the leaves. Flowers large, axillary, solitary. Calyx double, the outer portion deciduous, consisting of 3 small, acute leaflets inserted on the base of the inner calyx; the inner is bell-shaped, larger than the outer, with 5 inconspicuous, persistent teeth. Corolla four times longer than the calyx, of 5 fleshy, fluted petals, their borders overlapping, much broader above. Stamens very numerous, arranged around and along a column. Filaments long. Anthers of half-moon shape. Style 1, very thick. Stigma cleft in 5 parts, which are twisted in spiral form. Seed vessels about the size of a filbert, 5-sided, with 5 apartments each containing 5 ovoid seeds attached by separate seed stalks to the central axis of the ovary. Seeds not woolly.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Facile exfoliation and physicochemical characterization of Thespesia populnea plant leaves based bioplasticizer macromolecules reinforced with polylactic acid biofilms for packaging applications
- Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Thespesia populnea Bark Extract for Efficient Removal of Methylene Blue (MB) Degradation via Photocatalysis with Antimicrobial Activity and for Anticancer Activity
- The study of wound healing activity of Thespesia populnea L. bark, an approach for accelerating healing through nanoparticles and isolation of main active constituents