Tetrastigma thorsborneorum is a species of plant in the grape family Vitaceae. It is native to the northern half of Queensland, Australia. First described in 1989, it is considered to be a least-concern species.
Description Tetrastigma thorsborneorum is a tendril climber, becoming woody and with age, with a stem diameter up to . Lenticels are prominent even on young shoots. The compound leaves are divided with between five and eleven leaflets, although five or seven are the most common numbers. The tendrils grow from the stem on the opposite side to the leaves and are once-divided.
Inflorescences are produced in the leaf axils. This species is , meaning that (functionally female) and (functionally male) flowers are borne on separate plants. Staminate inflorescences are about long, with pale, tightly backward-curving petals about long; pistillate inflorescences about long, petals about long, ovary conical and long, stigma with four spreading lobes. Calyx for both about long.
The fruit is a dark blue to black, globular berry about long and wide, containing a single ovoid seed about wide and long.
Distribution and habitat This vine grows in drier rainforest types such as monsoon forest and vine thickets, on a variety of soil types. The geographical range is eastern Queensland from Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range) National Park on Cape York Peninsula, southwards to Airlie Beach. The altitudinal range is from sea level to about .
Taxonomy This species was described in 1989 by Australian botanist Betsy Rivers Jackes, in the final paper of a five-part review of Australian Vitaceae published in the journal Austrobaileya.
Etymology The genus name Tetrastigma refers to the four-lobed stigma seen in the species, while the species epithet thorsborneorum was chosen in honour of Margaret Thorsborne and her husband Arthur, well-known naturalists and conservationists who first collected fertile specimens of the plant.
Conservation This species is listed as least concern under the Queensland Government's Nature Conservation Act. , it has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
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References
External links
Map of herbarium collections of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium Observations of this species on iNaturalist Images of this species on Flickriver.com