''Poikilospermum'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of shrubs or tall woody climbers, consisting of at least 33 accepted species. The plants are found from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

), the Sino-Himalayan region to

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

and Jawa in Indonesia. Some of the plants are used by people. Common names in the genus include the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

() and ( or ),Flora Of China: ''Poikilospermum'', eFloras (2008), published on the Internet http://www.efloras.org ccessed 18 September 2012 Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA, http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=126288 and the Khmer .Dy Phon Pauline, 2000, ''Plants Used In Cambodia'', printed by Imprimerie Olympic, Phnom Penh

Classification

The classification of the genus was dynamic and the in past was linked to the status of the family

Cecropiaceae The Urticaceae are a family (biology), family, the nettle family, of flowering plants. The family name comes from the genus ''Urtica''. The Urticaceae include a number of well-known and useful plants, including nettles in the genus ''Urtica'', ...

. At present, consensus places it in the family

Urticaceae The Urticaceae are a family, the nettle family, of flowering plants. The family name comes from the genus ''Urtica''. The Urticaceae include a number of well-known and useful plants, including nettles in the genus ''Urtica'', ramie (''Boehmeri ...

.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 12, July 2012 nd more or less continuously updated since http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/, accessed 18 September 2012 One recent phylogenetic study placed it in a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

with ''

Urtica ''Urtica'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles, although the latter name applies particularly to ''Urtica dioica''. ''Urtica'' species are food f ...

'', though two slightly older studies placed it as a sister clade to the Cecropieae (the former Cecropiaceae ''s. str.'') and Urticaeae (Urticaceae ''s. antiq.''). Older, nonphylogenetic, work placed the genus in Cecropiaceae, a family regarded as intermediate between Urticeae and

Moraceae The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...

Taxonomic history

Alexander Zippelius (1797-1828) is given authorship of the genus, publishing in ''Annales Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi'' (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

), 1: 203, in 1864. His work superseded that of

Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist, whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Groni ...

(1811-1871). In 1978, Berg placed it in Cecropiaceae. Most recent work has been by Datwyler & Weiblen (2004), Zerega et al. (2005), and Hadiah et al. (2008) place the genus in Urticaceae.

Description

Members of ''Poikilospermum'' are shrubs or tall woody climbers (also known as lianas). The petiolate leaves are alternate; their

stipules In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

are often caducous, intrapetiolar, connate, and leathery; their

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

are often prominently pinnate; cystoliths occur adaxially in circular groups, abaxially along veins, either punctiform or linear. The

inflorescences An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

are solitary and axillary dichotomously branched cymes, they are unisexual (the plants are

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

). The glomerules are capitate and either on swollen peduncular receptacles (in ''P''. subgen. ''Ligulistigma'', continental Asia group), in agglomerations, or are free (in ''P''. subgen. ''Poikilospermum'', E Malaysia group). The male flowers are with 2-4

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

lobes, free or slightly connate; there are two to four

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

, the filaments are straight (in ''P''. subgen. ''Ligulistigma'') or inflexed; a rudimentary

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

is present. The female flowers have four perianth lobes, and are clavate-tubular and decussate-imbricate. The ovary in this genus is enclosed, with a short

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

, a capitate or ligulate (in ''P''. subgen. ''Ligulistigma'') stigma; the

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the fe ...

is orthotropous. The seeds have little or no

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo and ...

. The

cotyledons A cotyledon (; ; ; , gen. (), ) is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant, and is defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first to appear from a germinating seed." The numb ...

are ovate.

Distribution and habitat

Plants of the genus occur naturally from India across to Southeast Asia, China and Indonesia. Countries and regions in which plants of the genus grow include: Indonesia ( Maluku, Sulawesi,

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

, Jawa,

Sumatera Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

); Philippines; Malaysia (

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

); Thailand; Cambodia; Vietnam; Zhōngguó/China (South-central);

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

; Myanmar; India (including

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian s ...

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

); Bangladesh; Tibet; East Himalaya. The genus has also been introduced to Jamaica. In China there are 3 species. Species often have high moisture requirement, occurring in Monsoon forests and rain forests, often near streams or other we places, at altitudes ranging from 500m to 1800m. In Cambodia ''P. suaveolens'' grows in the undergrowth of dense forests.

Human use

One species is used to produce ties (as in to tie things together).

Species

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9061329 Urticaceae Urticaceae genera Dioecious plants Taxa named by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel