Freycinetia

Description

Freycinetia is one of the five extant genera in the flowering plant family Pandanaceae. The genus comprises approximately 180–200 species, 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. Usually they are dioecious and vines, climbing by aerial roots, or sometimes scrambling shrubs.