Chestnut vine

Description

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. Within the Vitaceae, Tetrastigma has long been considered closely related to Cayratia and Cyphostemma and is now placed in the tribe Cayratieae. A fossil seed fragment from the early Miocene of Tetrastigma sp., has been found in the Czech part of the Zittau Basin. Tetrastigma macrofossils have been recovered from the late Zanclean stage of Pliocene sites in Pocapaglia, Italy. Tetrastigma is derived from Greek and means 'four stigmas', in reference to its four-lobed stigma.