Glossy forest grape | |
---|---|
In its habit with new leaves emerging | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Vitales |
Family: | Vitaceae |
Genus: | Rhoicissus |
Species: | R. rhomboidea |
Binomial name | |
Rhoicissus rhomboidea | |
Synonyms | |
Vitis rhomboidea(E.Mey. ex Harv.) Szyszyl. [1] Contents |
Rhoicissus rhomboidea, also known as the glossy forest grape, glossy wild grape, ropewood, bastard forest grape and grape ivy, [2] is an evergreen climbing plant in the family Vitaceae that is native to the eastern forests of southern Africa. [3] [4]
It was first described in 1859 and was formerly placed within the genus Cissus . [1] Its species name 'rhomboidea' is traced from Latin rhombus, which translates to ‘a four-sided geometrical figure with all sides and opposite angles being equal’, pertaining to its diamond-shaped leaves. [5]
It is a vigorous, evergreen vine that scrambles or becomes a liana, reaching 3 to 6 m in height (6–20 feet), though it can also grow to small tree or shrub. [5] [6] [2]
The dark green, rhombic leaves are trifoliate that comprise three asymmetrical leaflets with short stalks which are coriaceous and satiny with pale russet hairs below and with an irregularly toothed margin. Each tooth is tipped with a roughly 1 mm long point, and the leaflet tip decreases to a degree. [2]
The dark brown-coloured stem is has many branches, with very powerful, forked tendrils. Younger parts of plant are covered in soft rust-coloured hairs. [5]
Flowers are greenish yellow, inconspicuous and small, in divided heads in the leaf axils, which appear in spring to midsummer. Their fleshy, showy, spherical, edible grape-like fruits (drupes) are borne in clumps from late summer to autumn, which may continue to late spring, where they ripen to a dark red, purple or black. [5] [2]
The vine is native to South Africa, Eswatini, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. [2] In South Africa it is found in the provinces of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, usually in forest and forest edges. It is well adaptable in tropical and warm temperate or subtropical climate zones. [5]
It is used as a garden plant, where it prefers cool, sheltered areas in summer (though winter warmth is necessary as it is frost tender). In the garden, it can be found on trellises, staircases, entrances and in hanging baskets. The plant can grown from both cuttings and seeds. [5]
The vine attracts birds due to its edible grape-like fruits, which are also consumed by humans. [5] The plant's stems are used to make rope, hence one of the plant's common names 'ropewood'. The plant is seldom affected by pests or diseases, in addition to it being tough and enduring some negligence and living in poor conditions. [5]
It should be distinguished from the oak-leaved Cissus alata by its diamond-shaped (rhombic) leaves, although the two species names have been misapplied and mistaken for each other. [7]
In folk medicine, the plant's roots have been used to assist delivery for pregnant women. [8]
The plant showed the highest inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis with 56% inhibition, compared to 89% inhibition by the indomethacin standard, implying its potential to be used as an anti-inflammatory agent. The plant exhibited some level of antimicrobial activity, with its roots illustrating the highest repressive activity against various microorganisms. Its stem extract and the standards chloramphenicol and tetracycline all signaled an inhibition zone diameter against Salmonella sp. [8]
Aqueous and methanol extracts of the plant were inspected to ascertain its therapeutic potentials as anticancer agents – In vitro, the antiproliferative activity against HepG2 cells, a human liver cancer cell line, was determined. [8]
The plant contains compounds (polyphenols) with powerful radical-scavenging and antiradical-generating effects. Its extracts revealed more than 50% antioxidant activity compared with values acquired for the commercial antioxidants which were used as standards. The plant also inhibited the 1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical with about 98% radical scavenging activity. Xanthine oxidase was inhibited by 88.20% by its root extract. [8]
The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines and Virginia creeper. The family name is derived from the genus Vitis.
A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent stems, lianas, or runners. The word vine can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.
Ampelopsis, commonly known as peppervine or porcelainberry, is a genus of climbing shrubs, in the grape family Vitaceae. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἅμπελος (ampelos), which means "vine". The genus was named in 1803. It is disjunctly distributed in eastern Asia and eastern North America extending to Mexico. Ampelopsis is primarily found in mountainous regions in temperate zones with some species in montane forests at mid-altitudes in subtropical to tropical regions. Ampelopsis glandulosa is a popular garden plant and an invasive weed.
Cissus is a genus of approximately 350 species of lianas in the grape family (Vitaceae). They have a cosmopolitan distribution, though the majority are to be found in the tropics.
Cyphostemma is a flowering plant genus in the family Vitaceae, with around 250 species distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. These species are caudiciform and used to belong to the genus Cissus. The genus name comes from Greek kyphos, meaning hump, and stemma, meaning garland.
Tetrastigma is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterized by their four-lobed stigmas. The species are found in subtropical and tropical regions of Asia, Malaysia, and Australia, where they grow in primary rainforest, gallery forest and monsoon forest and moister woodland. Species of this genus are notable as being the sole hosts of parasitic plants in the family Rafflesiaceae, one of which, Rafflesia arnoldii, produces the largest single flower in the world. Tetrastigma is the donor species for horizontal gene transfer to Sapria and Rafflesia due to multiple gene theft events.
Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is called viticulture.
Ampelocissus is a genus of Vitaceae having 90 or more species found variously in tropical Africa, Asia, Central America, and Oceania. The type species, A. latifolia, was originally treated under its basionym, Vitis latifolia, and was collected from the Indian subcontinent.
Ampelocissus abyssinica is a large climbing vine native to southeast Ethiopia, where it is known in the Afaan Oromo language by the name teru, and is used as a herbal treatment for the medical condition known as black leg. Its first botanical description was in 1847 as Vitis abyssinica, that name being the basionym for its treatment here under the genus Ampelocissus.
Rhoicissus is an Afrotropical plant genus in the grape family Vitaceae and subfamily Vitoideae. There are between nine and twenty-two accepted species.
Mimusops afra is a species of tree in family Sapotaceae. This tree is found in coastal dune vegetation in Southern Africa from the Eastern Cape, through KwaZulu-Natal to southern Mozambique.
Hedera rhombea, the Japanese ivy or songak, is a species of ivy in the Araliaceae family native to East Asia. It is native to Japan, the Korean Peninsula, the Ryukyu Islands, and Taiwan, where it is common on rocky slopes and growing up the trunks of trees, especially in laurel forest, a type of cloud forest.
Cissus subaphylla is a low shrub in the grape family Vitaceae. It is endemic to the Yemeni islands of Socotra and Samhah. The plant grows mainly in dry, low-lying areas on alluvial fans or on limestone slopes, and is rarely found above elevations of 300 metres (980 ft), where it is replaced by C. hamaderohensis. It does not have the climbing habit of other Cissus species, and its stems are flattened and gray-green in colour, with relatively small leaves and flowers. The tangled mats of C. subaphylla stems act as a protective covering for plants regularly eaten by goats and other browsing animals; the plant is thus important in the rehabilitation of species such as Dendrosicyos, Maerua and Commiphora.
Clematicissus opaca, called small-leaf grape, pepper vine, small-leaved water vine, yaloone and wappo wappo, is a small vine endemic to Australia. Pepper vine is naturally found in rocky locales in monsoon forest, littoral rainforest and open forest, and is occasionally grown as a garden plant. The plant is primarily restricted to coastal and sub-coastal regions in Queensland and New South Wales, although it does occur inland, west of the Great Dividing Range, in central New South Wales,
Ampelocissus martini is a species of climber or shrub in the Vitaceae family. Some sources use the spelling Ampelocissus martinii. It is native to an area of Mainland Southeast Asia. The fruit are eaten by people and by several species of Pangasiidae shark catfish of the Mekong river.
Cissus alata, commonly known as grape ivy, grape leaf ivy, oak leaf ivy, or Venezuela treebine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Vitaceae native to the tropical Americas. Under its synonym Cissus rhombifolia, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The species name 'alata' means winged.
Dianella ensifolia is a flowering plant, of the family Asphodelaceae. It is native to southern China, India, Japan, Madagascar, Malesia, the Pacific Islands, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and tropical Asia. Its common names include umbrella dracaena, common dianella, siak-siak, and flax lily.
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