Ripogonaceae
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''Ripogonum'' (sometimes ''Rhipogonum'') 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
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s confined to eastern
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, and
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...
. Until recently this genus was included in the
family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Smilacaceae Smilacaceae, the greenbriers, is a family of flowering plants. While they were often assigned to a more broadly defined family Liliaceae, most recent botanists have accepted the two as distinct families, diverging around 55 million years ago dur ...
, and earlier in the family
Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair ...
, but it has now been separated as its own family Ripogonaceae (sometimes Rhipogonaceae). Like most species of the closely related Smilacaceae, most species of ''Ripogonum'' are woody vines. Differences from Smilacaceae include that ''Ripogonum'' lacks stipules, it has a wet rather than dry stigma, its seeds and leaves contain starch, and its
guard cell Guard cells are specialized plant cells in the epidermis of leaves, stems and other organs that are used to control gas exchange. They are produced in pairs with a gap between them that forms a stomatal pore. The stomatal pores are largest when ...
s contain oil.


Description

The six species of ''Ripogonum'' are
perennials A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...
, either
vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...
s or
shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
s. The leaves, which may have several different arrangements, lack
stipule 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 ...
s. The stems may have prickles. The Australian species are
bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
; others are
unisexual 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 ...
. Individual flowers have six white to pale green or yellow
tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...
s. The
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. ...
has three
locule A locule (plural locules) or loculus (plural loculi) (meaning "little place" in Latin) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus). In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term ''locule'' usu ...
s with two ovules per locule. The fruit is a
berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...
with a few brown seeds.


Taxonomy

In 1769, during explorer Lieutenant James Cook's first voyage of discovery, botanists
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
and
Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil. Biography ...
collected specimens of "supplejack" (''
Ripogonum scandens ''Ripogonum scandens'', (commonly known as supplejack, Māori: kareao, pirita, translated as ''"twisted rope"'') is a common rainforest vine native to New Zealand. It can also grow in areas of swamp. Supplejack is a climbing liana, that has ha ...
'') in New Zealand. The species was described in Solander's unpublished manuscript and was illustrated by
Sydney Parkinson Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745 – 26 January 1771) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and natural history artist. He was the first European artist to visit Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Parkinson was the first Quaker to visit New Zealand. ...
. Cook again visited New Zealand in 1773 during his second voyage. While anchored at Dusky Bay (now
Dusky Sound Tamatea / Dusky Sound is a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand, in Fiordland National Park. Geography One of the most complex of the many fiords on this coast, it is also the largest at 40 kilometres in length and eight kilometre ...
) in the
South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
of New Zealand, he remarked in his journal: During this voyage naturalist
Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and natural history, naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of ...
, assisted by his son
Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (, 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold F ...
collected plant specimens, the elder Forster offering the following description in his journal: In 1776, the Forsters published the genus ''Ripogonum'' in the second edition of their with ''Ripogonum scandens'' as the type species. The name ''Ripogonum'' is derived from the Greek words (, wickerwork, referring to the long shoots) and (, jointed), from the jointed appearance of the stems. Because the Greek word begins with an aspirate
rho Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...
rather than plain rho, classical scholars preferred to transcribe it with rh- rather than r-. Consequently, some early botanists treated the Forsters' spelling as an error to be corrected and the spelling ''Rhipogonum'' was used. Which spelling is correct depends on the interpretation of Article 60 of the
International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...
, which recommends that the classical transcription rules should be followed when forming new names (Rec. 60A) and also that "the original spelling of a name or epithet is to be retained, except for the correction of typographical or orthographical errors". It has been stated that the Forsters' spelling is probably deliberate and should not be liable to correction in the same way as an accidental typographical error would be. The
International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...
treats the spelling ''Rhipogonum'' as an "orthographic variant", and the ''Index Nominum Genericorum'' database uses the spelling ''Ripogonum'', as does the
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) is an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected plan ...
.


Phylogeny and classification

Until recently, ''Ripogonum'' was included in the
family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Smilacaceae Smilacaceae, the greenbriers, is a family of flowering plants. While they were often assigned to a more broadly defined family Liliaceae, most recent botanists have accepted the two as distinct families, diverging around 55 million years ago dur ...
(and earlier in the family
Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair ...
along with other
lilioid monocot Lilioid monocots (lilioids, liliid monocots, petaloid monocots, petaloid lilioid monocots) is an informal name used for a grade (grouping of taxa with common characteristics) of five monocot orders (Petrosaviales, Dioscoreales, Pandanales, Lili ...
s) but it has now been separated into its own family Ripogonaceae. The family name was first formally defined by Conran and Clifford in 1985.
Armen Takhtajan Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian ( hy, Արմեն Լևոնի Թախտաջյան; russian: Армен Леонович Тахтаджян; surname also transliterated Takhtadjan, Takhtadzhi︠a︡n or Takhtadzhian, pronounced takh-tuh-JA ...
later created the same family without realising it already existed. Molecular phylogenetic studies since the early 2000s have consistently shown a close relationship between the four families Ripogonaceae,
Philesiaceae Philesiaceae is a family of flowering plants, including two genera, each with a single species. The members of the family are woody shrubs or vines endemic to southern Chile. The APG III system, of 2009 (unchanged from the APG II system of 2003 ...
, Smilacaceae and the modern narrowly defined Liliaceae. This relationship was confirmed in a 2013 study, which produced the cladogram: The authors suggested that the Ripogonaceae and Philesiaceae could be combined into a single family based both on the genetic similarity of their plastids and common morphological features. The
APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a fur ...
treats them as two separate families in the Liliales, both distinct from Smilacaceae.


Species

''Ripogonum'' contains only six known species . * '' Ripogonum album'' , White supplejack – Australia (Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria) & New Guinea * ''
Ripogonum brevifolium ''Ripogonum brevifolium'', commonly known as small–leaved supplejack, is a vine, or sometimes a shrub, native to Australia. The species occurs in the states of Queensland and New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wal ...
'' , Small-leaved supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) * ''
Ripogonum discolor ''Ripogonum discolor'', known as the prickly supplejack, is a common rainforest vine, found in eastern Australia. The original specimen was collected at the Clarence River. The species occurs in the states of Queensland and New South Wales ...
'' , Prickly supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) * '' Ripogonum elseyanum'' , Hairy supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) * '' Ripogonum fawcettianum'' , Small supplejack – Australia (Queensland and New South Wales) * ''
Ripogonum scandens ''Ripogonum scandens'', (commonly known as supplejack, Māori: kareao, pirita, translated as ''"twisted rope"'') is a common rainforest vine native to New Zealand. It can also grow in areas of swamp. Supplejack is a climbing liana, that has ha ...
'' , Supplejack – the sole New Zealand species


Uses

Some species of this genus are used for constructing baskets, ropes, and fish traps by
indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
. In Australia and New Zealand, ''Ripogonum'' berries are known foods for some species of
mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
and
birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
. ''
Ripogonum scandens ''Ripogonum scandens'', (commonly known as supplejack, Māori: kareao, pirita, translated as ''"twisted rope"'') is a common rainforest vine native to New Zealand. It can also grow in areas of swamp. Supplejack is a climbing liana, that has ha ...
'' has a fibrous root rich in
starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...
and used as a
beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
flavouring. Known to the
Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
of New Zealand as or , a concentrated decoction of the supplejack root has a sweetish sarsaparilla-like scent and flavour and is soothing to the throat. It was also used in treating bowel complaints, fever, rheumatism and skin diseases. The edible small berry is dry and insipid but the cooked young shoots reportedly taste like fresh green beans. The sap is also edible.


References


External links

:
Ripogonaceae
in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards).
The families of flowering plants
: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval.'' Version: 9 March 2006. http://delta-intkey.com :
NCBI Taxonomy Browser
:
Plants for a Future Database: description of uses of ''Ripogonum scandens''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q131352 Liliales genera Flora of Australia Flora of New Guinea Flora of New Zealand Taxa named by Johann Reinhold Forster