Clitoria macrophylla Wall. ex Benth. 1857, commonly called Poik Tak Katen, is a tropical, annual vine, native to South China (Guangdong, Guangxi), India, Myanmar (formerly Burma),
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The tropical vine has been claimed to possess pharmacological activities, but is still in research. A new rotenoid compound, 6-deoxyclitoriacetal, has been found in the roots of Clitoria macrophylla and parts of the plant are used in Thai natural medicine. Flowers get a size of about 3 cm across. Flowering period: April - October. During the tropical rainy season, with its heavy monsoon rainfalls, our garden seems to burst. Plants are sprouting all over and as I has been adviced by Thai people not to displant any of the new scions, because most of them are precious herbs, edible fruits or vegetables, we leave our garden to itself. Over the years we found a lot of interesting plants, this years 2012 surprise was a Santo Papa passionflower (Passiflora foetida) and some Clitoria macrophylla plants, which both of them we never saw before. The tropical vine Clitoria macrophylla belongs to the bean or pea family (Fabaceae) and is a close relative to the blue butterfly pea (Cltoria ternatea), which is widely used in South East Asia for natural food coloring
and a healthy blue herbal tea.

Flower Photography © Orchids Flowers.com
Image: Tropical Vine Clitoria macrophylla