Anredera cordifolia
NPPA pest plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Madeira vine
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Lianes & Related Trailing Plants - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White
Detailed description
Climbing vine with slender stems often reddish, ageing to dull brown. Leaves slightly succulent, less so when exposed to high light, shining, broadly oval shaped, up to 13 cm with small irregular tubers where they join to the stem. Tubers can accumulate to form large clusters. Long hanging racemes of small white fragrant flowers to 18cm long are produced January to April.
Similar taxa
The stem tubers help distinguish this species from all other naturalised vines in NZ.
Habitat
Terrestrial. Coastal localities, wasteland, especially shrub covered areas such as coastal gullies.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Basellaceae
Ecology
Flowering
January, February, March, April
Year naturalised
1940
Origin
trop S America
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Tolerant to salt, prefers moist areas but can survive very harsh conditions and re-sprouts from corms when conditions are more favourable.
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Reproduces vegetatively by producing knobbly tubers which are produced frequently in the leaf axils along the stems; fruit is not formed in New Zealand. Dispersed by gravity, seawater, machinery, soil movement,
Other information
National Pest Plant Accord species
This plant is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is an agreement to prevent the sale and/or distribution of specified pest plants where either formal or casual horticultural trade is the most significant way of spreading the plant in New Zealand. For up to date information and an electronic copy of the 2020 Pest Plant Accord manual (including plant information and images) visit the MPI website.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
ANRCOR