Tropaeolum speciosum
NPPA pest plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Chilean flame creeper
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Lianes & Related Trailing Plants - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Red/Pink
Detailed description
Climbing perennial, often to high canopy, usually hairless. Rootstock thick. Stems slender, usually with coiling tendrils to 7 cm long, watery sap. Leaves 5-fingered, each leaflet 10-35 x 5-16 mm. Flowers solitary, tubular, 15 mm diam, 5 irregular petals, bottom 3 petals with very slender claw 7-8 mm long, scarlet (occ rose), Nov-Apr. Seed capsule thinly fleshy, of 3 round parts, 1 or 2 often remaining small, 1 cm wide, deep blue.
Similar taxa
Tropaeolum speciosum is very similar vegetatively to Tropaeolum pentaphyllum. T. pentaphyllum only 2 upper petals developed, while T. speciosum has 5 more or less equal petals.
Habitat
Terrestrial. Mainly remnant stands of forest, also scrub, sometimes found in more remote forest clearings.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Tropaeolaceae
Ecology
Flowering
November, December, January, February, March, April
Fruiting
December - March
Year naturalised
1958
Origin
Chile
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Tolerant of warm-cold temperatures, salt, wind, many soil types, damp to dry.
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial; produces seed. Fruit dispersed by birds.
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.
TROSPE