Terima kasih kepada Linn Nicole Ragai Lang yang telah bantu saya mengenal pasti paku misteri yang tumbuh dalam pasu saya , benih dari selori tanah bukit yang saya beli untuk menyemai di nurseri.
Nama tempatan : Paku Engkeruak
Nama Botani : Ceratopteris thalictroides (L.) Brongn.
Keluarga : Pteridaceae
“The only record of Ceratopteris thalictroides being eaten in Africa is from Madagascar, where it is used in a similar way as watercress. It is commonly eaten throughout South-East Asia. In Malaysia and Japan it is an established luxury vegetable. The young leaves, before they have uncurled, make excellent greens and when cooked or blanched they can be eaten as a salad.
The plants can be used as a green manure in rice fields. Medicinally, this fern (both leaf and root) is used in Malaysia and the Philippines as a poultice against skin complaints, e.g. as a drawing agent on carbuncles, in China as a styptic to stop bleeding. Ceratopteris species, including Ceratopteris thalictroides, are grown as ornamentals in aquariums, popularly called ‘water sprite’. Ceratopteris thalictroides and especially also Ceratopteris richardii Brongn. serve as model plants in developmental biology and molecular research. They are useful for research because they have independent haploid and diploid life phases, a short life cycle, a simple genetic system, and reproduce by single-celled haploid spores.”
www.prota4u.org/database/protav8.asp..
