''Urera trinervis'' (

Hochst. Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (16 February 1787 – 20 February 1860) was a German botanist and Protestant minister. Biography Hochstetter was born in Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. He was the father of geologist Ferdinand H ...

) Friis & Immelman is a softly woody dioecious liane, sometimes epiphytic, climbing to 20 m, often to the canopy and hanging in festoons. It is one of some 44 species of ''

Urera ''Urera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the nettle family, Urticaceae. It has a pantropical distribution.Steinmann, V. W. (2005)Four new neotropical species and a new combination of ''Urera'' (Urticaceae).''Acta Botánica Mexicana'' (71), 19- ...

'' belonging to the nettle 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 ...

. It is known in English as the tree climbing-nettle or climbing nettle.

Habitat and range

Found up to 1600 m, this species is widely distributed in coastal forest, forest margins, and dune forest of the Eastern Cape (as far south as Port St Johns) and KwaZulu-Natal, in eastern

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

, north along the African east coast to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, and across tropical Africa to

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. It is also known from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Description

Attaching by

adventitious root Important structures in plant development are buds, shoots, roots, leaves, and flowers; plants produce these tissues and structures throughout their life from meristems located at the tips of organs, or between mature tissues. Thus, a living plan ...

s, its stems are up to 10 cm in diameter, are occasionally armed with stinging hairs and exude copious and clear potable sap when cut. Bark is grey to brownish-black and longitudinally striate with large leaf scars on young branches. Pith is spongy, or stems are hollow in centre. Leaves are simple and with drip tips, elliptic to ovate with entire margins, and spirally arranged. Leaves are strongly 3-veined at the base, have 2–4 pairs of lateral nerves, the basal pair extending into upper third of the leaf. Flowers are small, greenish-white in colour and in lax axillary cymes. Inflorescences on male plants are paniculate, some 6.5 cm long, with dense clusters of flowers at intervals along the stalks. The female inflorescence is also lax and paniculate, about 2 cm long, with a small cymose cluster of flowers. Fruit is a small nut or achene, glabrous, 1.5–2 mm long, enclosed in persistent, fleshy, orange/red

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.

Uses and species associations

The bark of this species supplies fibre for rope-making and is used for fishing lines in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and DR Congo, where it is also cooked as a vegetable. The leaves are used in the treatment of scabies in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, and chewed to allay nausea and intestinal disorders, while water flowing from cut stems is drunk to treat rapid heart beat or

tachycardia Tachycardia, also called tachyarrhythmia, is a heart rate that exceeds the normal resting rate. In general, a resting heart rate over 100 beats per minute is accepted as tachycardia in adults. Heart rates above the resting rate may be normal ( ...

. This liane is a foodplant for the larvae of several species belonging to the

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...

- '' Acraea johnstoni'', '' Acraea semivitrea'', '' Acraea igola'', '' Acraea satis'', '' Acraea esebria'', '' Hypolimnas salmacis'', '' Salamis cacta''.

Synonyms

*''Urera trinervis'' (Hochst.) Friis & Immelman in Nord. J. Bot. 7,2(1987)126. *''Elatostema trinerve'' Hochst. ex Krauss in Flora 28,5(1845)88. *''Urera cameroonensis'' Wedd. in A. DC., Prodr. 16,1(1869)97. *''Urera arborea'' De Wild & Th. Dur in Compt. Rend. Soc. Bot. Belg. 38(1900)52. *''Urera laurentii'' De Wild., Miss. Em. Laurent (1905)72, pl20. *''Urera gilletii'' De Wild. in Ann. Mus. Congo 5,1(1906)240. *''Urera woodii'' N.E. Br. in Kew Bull. (1911)96. *''Urera usambarensis'' Rendle in J. Bot. 54(1916)370. Urera trinervis05.jpg, Urera trinervis06.jpg, Urera trinervis01.jpg, Urera trinervis08.jpg,

References

External links

iSpot
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15553800 trinervis