Agdestis clematidea (rockroot)

Identity

Preferred Scientific Name

• Agdestis clematidea Moc. & Sessé ex DC.

Preferred Common Name

• rockroot

Other Scientific Names

• Agdestis teterrima De Not.

International Common Names

• Spanish: bejuco de ajo; flor de pedo; vomita

Local Common Names

• Cuba: flor del pedo; pedo de chino; yedra

Summary of Invasiveness

A. clematidea is a fast-growing climbing dense vine. It has the potential to grow as fast as 40 or 50 feet per year and its foliage completely covers its support and reaches several metres in height (Rogers, 1985). In addition, roots can be very large and heavy (Abreu et al., 2008). At present, it has been listed as invasive only in Cuba, and it is considered one of the 100 more noxious invasive plants on the island (Oviedo Prieto et al., 2012). 

Taxonomic Tree

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Caryophyllales
•                         Family: Phytolaccaceae
•                             Genus: Agdestis
•                                 Species: Agdestis clematidea

Notes on Taxonomy and Nomenclature

Phytolaccaceae is a small family of flowering plants comprising herbs, vines or soft-wooded trees distributed in tropical and warm temperate regions of the world, but especially across America. This family is also known as the “pokeweed” family (Stevens, 2012). The generic composition of Phytolaccaceae has long been controversial, and reviews of past taxonomic treatments show a variable assortment of circumscriptions (Lee et al., 2013). Former classifications have included up to 16 genera within this family, but most recent classifications place this family in the order Caryophyllales and include only 5 genera (Anisomeria, Agdestis, Ercilla, Nowickea and Phytolacca) and about 32 species (Stevens, 2012; Lee et al., 2013). The genus Agdestis is monotypic and refers to the mythical hermaphrodite monster, in reference to the anomalous original inclusion in the dioecious family Menispermaceae, where it was the only genus with bisexual flowers (Rogers, 1985; Nienaber and Thieret, 2003). Currently it is recognized as the subfamily Agdestidoideae (Stevens, 2012). 

Description

Twining vine, herbaceous, attaining 15 m in length. Stems angular, reddish, striate, puberulent. Leaves with a strong, disagreeable odour, alternate, chartaceous, ovate or broadly ovate, 3-9 × 3-7.5 cm, the apex obtuse or short-acuminate, mucronate, the base deeply cordiform or hastate, the margins crenulate; upper surface dark green, dull, with minute dots; lower surface light green, dull, puberulent, with prominent venation; petioles 1.5-9 cm long, with a reddish tinge, sulcate; stipules absent. Flowers bisexual, white, in axillary panicles, 6-17 cm long; peduncles glabrous or puberulent; pedicels 1-2 mm long, with a minute green bracteole, lanceolate, at the base. Sepals 4, white, 3-5 mm long, oblong or oblanceolate, with the parallel venation conspicuous; petals absent; stamens 13-20; ovary partially inferior, the style conical, with 4 recurved stigmatic branches; ovule solitary. Fruits coriaceous, indehiscent, turbinate, approximately 3 mm long, with the sepals persistent at the base. Seeds elliptical (Acevedo-Rodriguez, 2005).

Plant Type

Distribution

A. clematidea is native to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. It is naturalized in the southern USA (Florida and Texas), Cuba and Puerto Rico (Rogers, 1985; Nienaber and Thieret, 2003; Oviedo Prieto et al., 2012; USDA-NRCS, 2014). 

Distribution Table

The distribution in this summary table is based on all the information available. When several references are cited, they may give conflicting information on the status. Further details may be available for individual references in the Distribution Table Details section which can be selected by going to Generate Report.

History of Introduction and Spread

A. clematidea was probably introduced intentionally to be used as an ornamental and medicinal herb. However, this species has limited application as an ornamental due to the unpleasant odour in all parts of the plant (Rogers, 1985; Nienaber and Thieret, 2003; Abreu et al., 2008). For Cuba, the oldest herbarium record achieved was collected in La Habana in 1908 (The New York Botanical Garden). By 1985, this species was reported in the USA, in the states of Texas and Florida, as escaped from cultivation and occurring spontaneously outside of cultivation in disturbed sites (Rogers, 1985).

Risk of Introduction

A. clematidea is a vigorous fast-growing vine which has repeatedly escaped from cultivation. It spreads by seeds and is capable of forming dense tangles and climbing over shrubs and high into trees. As with many other species in the Phytolaccaceae, A. clematidea has a “weedy behaviour”, preferring naturally and artificially disturbed sites (Rogers, 1985; Nienaber and Thieret, 2003). Therefore, the risk of introduction of this vine species is high principally in areas near cultivation and on open ground in disturbed sites. 

Habitat

A. clematidea grows in such diverse habitats as tropical forests, dry thickets, rocky places, and disturbed sites (Rogers, 1985). In Puerto Rico and Cuba, this species is planted in gardens as an ornamental (Acevedo-Rodríguez, 2005). In Florida and Texas (USA), it grows in hammocks, orchards, waste places, and ravines from sea level to 30 m (Rogers, 1985; Nienaber and Thieret, 2003). 

Habitat List

Biology and Ecology

In the USA (Texas and Florida), A. clematidea flowers during summer and autumn (Nienaber and Thieret, 2003). In Puerto Rico, it has been recorded flowering from May to December (Acevedo-Rodriguez, 2005).

A. clematidea is a perennial fast-growing climbing vine. It has the potential to grow as fast as 40 or 50 feet per year and its foliage completely covers its support and reaches several metres in height (Rogers, 1985).

Climate

Air Temperature

Rainfall

Soil Tolerances

Soil drainage

• free

Soil reaction

• neutral

Soil texture

• light
• medium

Means of Movement and Dispersal

A. clematidea spreads by seeds. Fruits are small, dry, indehiscent, surrounded by the spreading wing-like sepals that cause the fruit to rotate rapidly while falling (Rogers, 1985).

Pathway Causes

Pathway Vectors

Impact Summary

Environmental Impact

A. clematidea is a vigorous fast-growing vine with the potential to completely outcompete native vegetation. It grows forming dense tangles and climbing over shrubs and high into trees, smothering “supporting trees” while outcompeting native vegetation for resources such as sunlight and nutrients (Rogers, 1985; Abreu et al., 2008; Oviedo Prieto et al., 2012). 

Risk and Impact Factors

Impact mechanisms

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Competition - strangling
• Rapid growth

Impact outcomes

• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Host damage
• Loss of medicinal resources
• Modification of successional patterns
• Monoculture formation
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

Invasiveness

• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Fast growing
• Long lived
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc

Uses

Agdestis has limited application as an ornamental due to its “disagreeable oduor”. However, this species is sometimes planted in gardens and to decorate buildings and hide eyesores in circumstances where its odour is not objectionable (Rogers, 1985). In Cuba, the plant is reported to repel the Cuban leaf cutting ant, Atta insularis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), which is known to damage crops, and consequently it is planted near crops (Abreu et al., 2008). In Cuba, a decoction or macerate of this plant is also used in traditional medicine for the treatment of urinary infections, renal stones and as an aphrodisiac (Abreu et al., 2008). 

Uses List

Environmental

• Amenity

Medicinal, pharmaceutical

• Traditional/folklore

Ornamental

• Propagation material

References

Abreu OA, Piloto D, Velázquez R, Prieto S, 2008. Ethnobotany of Agdestis clematidea (Phytolaccaceae) in two municipalities of Las Tunas Province, Cuba. Ethnobotany Research and Applications, 6:347-349. http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/12490/1/i1547-3465-06-347.pdf

Acevedo-Rodríguez P, 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, 51:483 pp.

Acevedo-Rodríguez P, Strong MT, 2012. Catalogue of the Seed Plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, 98:1192 pp. Washington DC, USA: Smithsonian Institution. http://botany.si.edu/Antilles/WestIndies/catalog.htm

Govaerts R, 2014. World Checklist of Phytoloccaceae. Richmond, UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/

Lee J, Kim SY, Park SH, Ali MA, 2013. Molecular phylogenetic relationships among members of the family Phytolaccaceae sensu lato inferred from internal transcribed spacer sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA. Genetics and Molecular Research, 12(4):4515-4525.

Nienaber MA, Thieret JW, 2003. Phytoloccaceae. In: Flora of North America north of Mexico, 4 [ed. by Flora of North America Editorial Committee]. New York and Oxford: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, 3-5.

Oviedo Prieto R, Herrera Oliver P, Caluff MG, et al., 2012. National list of invasive and potentially invasive plants in the Republic of Cuba - 2011. (Lista nacional de especies de plantas invasoras y potencialmente invasoras en la República de Cuba - 2011). Bissea: Boletín sobre Conservación de Plantas del Jardín Botánico Nacional de Cuba, 6(Special Issue 1):22-96.

Rogers GK, 1985. The genera of Phytolaccaceae in the Southeastern United States. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, 66(1):1-37.

Stevens PF, 2012. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/

USDA-NRCS, 2014. The PLANTS Database. Baton Rouge, USA: National Plant Data Center. http://plants.usda.gov/

Vickery AR, 2009. Phytolaccaceae. Cycadaceae a Connaraceae. Flora Mesoamericana, 2 (1) [ed. by Davidse, G. \Sousa Sánchez, M. \Knapp, S. \Chiang Cabrera, F.]. 1-9.

Wunderlin RP, Hansen BF, 2008. Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants. Tampa, Florida, USA: University of South Florida. http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/

Links to Websites

Contributors

25/11/14 Original text by:

Julissa Rojas-Sandoval, Department of Botany-Smithsonian NMNH, Washington DC, USA

Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, Department of Botany-Smithsonian NMNH, Washington DC, USA

Distribution Maps

• = Present, no further details
• = Evidence of pathogen
• = Widespread
• = Last reported
• = Localised
• = Presence unconfirmed
• = Confined and subject to quarantine
• = See regional map for distribution within the country
• = Occasional or few reports

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