Hong Kong Pavetta (Pavetta hongkongensis)

Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre x Little Woods Nature Education

A small city Hong Kong, nurtured millions of people and biodiversity. Some of them are named after Hong Kong, meaning that they were first identified here. Let's find out who are they?

┉┉┉ ▷Rubiaceae ▷Pavetta ▷ IUCN Least Concerned

Hong Kong Pavetta blooms in spring, tiny white flowers reminds us a sky full of stars. It coexists with a bacteria called Azotobacter whcih binds nitrogen in air into ammonium ions that is absorbable to plants. These Azotobacter has a thick wall crust, therefore if you look its leaf under the sun, you can see multiple black dots.

Back in the 1850s, American botanist Charles Wright came to Hong Kong with The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, a.k.a. the Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition, collected samples of Hong Kong Pavetta, but did not name it then. Until 1934, Dutch botanist C. E. B. Bremekamp published this plant on German botanist Fredrich Fedde's book, Repertorium specierum novarum regni vegetabilis, naming it after Hong Kong, the place this first sample was collected.

Hong Kong Pavetta is also a Chinese medicine, practitioners use it to treat fever or sprained injuries. This amazing plant is commonly found in Hong Kong and widely distributed in Canton and Southern China in bushes at 200-1300m altitude. We also have on near the entrance of our centre, come and have a look at your next visit.