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Gnetum africanum

(African Jointfir)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Chinese:

Gang Guo Mai Ma Teng

Common Names in English:

African Gnetum, African Jointfir

Common Names in French:

Gnetum D´afrique, Gnetum D´afrique à Feuilles Comestibles

Description

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Family Gnetaceae

Vines evergreen , woody, less often erect shrubs or trees , dioecious or sometimes monoecious; stems with swollen nodes. Leaves opposite, petiolate , without stipules, simple , pinnately veined, margin entire. Flowers unisexual , borne in whorled , spikelike cones (here termed "spikes"), arranged in lax , dichasial cymes. Cymes terminal or lateral , sometimes arranged in dense, cauliflorous clusters on old stems. Spikes with many cupular to almost flat, annular , involucral collars , each formed by the fusion of a whorl of bracts. Male spikes with collars closely arranged and hiding axis (less often somewhat laxly arranged), each collar with 20-80 flowers, often also with a whorl of sterile female flowers, apical whorl with sterile female flowers only; male flowers with a cupular, succulent false perianth, usually obconical ; stamens 2, filaments fused, exserted from false perianth; anthers opening by a common, apical slit, pollen rounded , with minute projections. Female spikes solitary or several in a panicle, often cauliflorous; involucral collars widely separated, each with 4-12 flowers; female flowers with a false perianth tightly enclosing ovule; ovule with 2 integuments, innermost integument elongated into a micropylar tube exserted from false perianth; outer integument with a fleshy , outer layer connate with false perianth and developing into a false seed coat , inner layer bony. Seeds drupelike, enclosed in a red, orange, or yellow, fleshy (rarely corky) false seed coat; female gametophyte tissue copious , succulent. Cotyledons 2. Germination epigeal.

One genus and about 40 species: mostly tropical and subtropical Asia, fewer species in W Africa and NW South America; nine species (six endemic) in China.[1]

Genus Gnetum

Morphological characters and geographical distribution are the same as those of the family .

Many species are used in a variety of ways: the bark provides a strong fiber used for making ropes and nets ; the sap flows very freely from cut stems and can be drunk to quench thirst; the young leaves of some species are used as a green vegetable; and the seeds are roasted and eaten (the outer, fleshy layer contains irritant, needlelike crystals, and is not generally eaten) .[2]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 902 meters (0 to 2,959 feet).[3]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Trans. Linn. Soc. London 27:73. 1869

Name verified on 04-Oct-1994 by ARS Systematic Botanists.

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Gnetum

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 81 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

G. acutatum · G. acutum · G. africanum (African Jointfir) · G. amazonicum · G. apiculatum · G. arboreum · G. bosavicum · G. brunonianum · G. buchholzianum (African Gnetum) · G. camporum · G. catasphaericum · G. cavaleriei · G. cleistostachyum · G. contractum · G. costatum · G. cruzianum · G. cuspidatum · G. diminitum · G. diminutum (Kalimantan Jointfir) · G. dioicum · G. edule · G. formosum · G. funiculare · G. giganteum · G. globosum · G. gnemon (Spanish Joint-Fir (Usa)) · G. gnemonoides · G. gnemon L. var. gnemon · G. gracilipes · G. griffithii · G. hainanense (Hainan Gnetum) · G. indicum · G. karstenianum · G. kingianum · G. klossii · G. latifolium · G. laxifrutescens · G. leptostachyum · G. leybodlii · G. leyboldi · G. leyboldii · G. leyboldii var. woodsonianum · G. loerzingii · G. longispica · G. luofuense · G. macrostachyum · G. melinonii · G. microcarpum · G. microstachyum · G. minus · G. montana · G. montanum (Common Jointfir) · G. neglectum · G. nigrum · G. nodiflorum (Amazonian Jointfir) · G. oblongifolium · G. oblongum · G. ovalifolium · G. oxycarpum · G. paniculatum (Colombian Jointfir) · G. paraense · G. parvifolium (Small-Leaved Jointfir) · G. penangense · G. pendulum · G. pendulum f. subsessile · G. pyrifolium · G. raya · G. ridleyi · G. rumphianum · G. scandens · G. schwackeanum (Venezuelan Jointfir) · G. sylvestre · G. tenuifolium (Thin-Leaved Jointfir) · G. thoa · G. trinerve · G. ula (Gnemon Tree (India)) · G. urens · G. urens var. camporum · G. verrucosum · G. vinosum · G. wrayi

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 24, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Liguo Fu, Yong-fu Yu & Michael G. Gilbert "Gnetaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 102. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Liguo Fu, Yong-fu Yu & Michael G. Gilbert "Gnetum". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 102. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Mean = 386.120 meters (1,266.798 feet), Standard Deviation = 285.200 based on 25 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009