Freycinetia

Freycinetia
ʻIeʻie (Freycinetia arborea)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Pandanales
Family: Pandanaceae
Genus: Freycinetia
Gaudich.
Synonyms[1]
  • Victoriperrea Hombr. & Jacquinot ex Decne.
  • Jezabel Banks ex Salisb.

Freycinetia is one of the five extant genera in the flowering plant family Pandanaceae. The genus comprises approximately 180–200 species,[2] most of them climbers.

The species are distributed through the tropics and subtropics of South Asia and the western Pacific Ocean, from Sri Lanka eastwards through the mainland of Southeast Asia to the Melanesia floristic region, and southwards to northern Australia (Queensland, Northern Territory, northern New South Wales), Norfolk Island, and New Zealand. F. banksii is the only extant New Zealand member of the family Pandanaceae, and is found naturally as far south as the temperate South Island.

They have been found growing in tropical forests, coastal forests, humid mountain forests and associated biomes, from sea level to mountains cloud forests.

The genus was named by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré for Admiral Louis de Freycinet, a 19th-century French explorer.[3]

Freycinetia arborea (flower). Location: Maui, Hanamu Rd Makawao, Hawaii
Developing fruit of Kiekie (Freycinetia banksii) Auckland, New Zealand
Freycinetia cf. elliptica (cultivated), Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Deutschland
Freycinetia banksii climbing the trunk of a Kohekohe tree, Auckland, New Zealand
  1. ^ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Angiosperm Phylogeny Website was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ieie was invoked but never defined (see the help page).