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Mikania micrantha

(American Rope Mikania Micrantha)

Overview

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Vine , Climber . Mikania micrantha is a fast growing, perennial , creeping and twining plant, commonly called mile-a-minute because of its vigorous and rampant growth habit. It grows best where fertility , organic matter, soil moisture, and humidity are all high and damages or kills other plants by cutting out the light and smothering them. Not to be confused with Polygonum perfoliatum (also mile-a-minute weed ).

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

American Rope Mikania Micrantha, American Rope, Bittervine, Chinese Creeper, Climbing Hempweed, Falso Guaco, Kwalo Koburu, Liane Americaine, Mile-A-Minute, Mile-A-Minute Weed, Ovaova, Wa Mbosuvu

Common Names in Fijian:

Usuvanua, Wa Bosucu, Wa Mbosuthu, Wa Mbutako, Wa Ndamele

Common Names in French:

Liane Americaine, Liane-Serpent

Common Names in German:

Chinesischer Sommerefeu

Common Names in Niuean:

Fue Saina

Common Names in Portuguese:

Carobinha, Guaco-Verdadeiro

Description

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Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Genus Mikania

Vines (perennial , sometimes suffrutescent ) [non-viney perennials, shrubs ], to 300[-1500+] cm. Stems usually twining to scrambling (terete , striate , or [4-] 6-angled, sometimes winged ), branched. Leaves cauline; opposite [whorled ]; petiolate [sessile]; blades palmately 3[-7]-nerved [pinnately nerved], ± ovate or deltate-ovate to triangular [linear ], margins entire or undulate to dentate or toothed to lobed , faces glabrous or puberulent to tomentose , often gland-dotted. Heads discoid , in corymbiform [paniculiform , racemiform , spiciform , thyrsiform] arrays. Involucres ± cylindric , [1-]2-3[-4] mm diam. (usually each subtended by 1 bractlet ). Phyllaries persistent , 4 in ± 2 series (outer pair imbricate over inner pair), not notably nerved, lanceolate, linear, or oblong (bases often swollen), ± equal. Receptacles flat (glabrous), epaleate. Florets 4; corollas usually white, sometimes pink to rose or purplish, throats funnelform or campanulate , lobes 5, linear or triangular to deltate; styles: bases slightly, if at all, enlarged, glabrous, branches ± filiform [weakly clavate ]. Cypselae ± prismatic , [4-]5[-10]-ribbed, glabrous or puberulent, sometimes gland-dotted; pappi persistent, of [20-]30-60 (white, buff, pinkish, or purplish) barbellulate to barbellate bristles in 1-2 series (distinct or basally connate ). x = 16-20.

Species ca. 450: overwhelmingly neotropical (9 species in the Old World tropics), some temperate North American and South American.

All species of Mikania in the flora belong to M . sect. Mikania in the sense of W. C. Holmes (1996).[1]

Physical Description

Species Mikania micrantha

A branched, slender-stemmed perennial vine . The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs along the stems and are heart-shaped or triangular with an acute tip and a broad base . Leaves may be 4-13 cm long. The flowers, each 3-5 mm long, are arranged in dense terminal or axillary corymbs. Individual florets are white to greenish-white. The seed is black, linear-oblong, five-angled and about 2 mm long. Each seed has a terminal pappus of white bristles that facilitates dispersal by wind or on the hair of animals (Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk).

Habit: Vine , Subshrub

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 4,936 meters (0 to 16,194 feet).[2]

Ecology: Once established , Mikania micrantha spreads at an alarming rate, readily climbing and twining on any vertical support , including crops , bushes, trees , walls and fences. Its shoots have been reported to grow up to 27 mm a day. Vegetative reproduction is also efficient and vigorous. Although intolerant of heavy shade it readily colonises gaps . Mikania micrantha damages or kills other plants by cutting out the light and smothering them. In this respect it is especially damaging in young plantations and nurseries. It also competes for water and nutrients , but perhaps even more importantly, it is believed that the plant releases substances that inhibit the growth of other plants. Mikania micrantha is one of the three worst weeds of tea in India and Indonesia and of rubber in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. In Samoa, incursions of M. micrantha have caused the abandonment of coconut plantations, and the weed has been reported to kill large breadfruit trees. It also causes serious problems in oil palm, banana, cacao and forestry crops, and in pastures. While it does not grow well in rice paddies, it can encroach from the edges to smother the crop. (Northern Territory Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development)

Biology

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Reproduction

Reproduces sexually by seeds, and vegetatively by rooting at nodes (Joel Miles ).A single plant may cover over 25 square metres within a few months, and release as many as 40,000 viable seeds every year. In some locations flowering and seed production are during short days only.

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Willoughbya Micrantha

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Data Providers: Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield , CONABIO, Caribbean Checklist , New Zealand Plant Name Database, Flora Malesiana, Govaerts World Compositae Checklist A-G, IPNI, Tropicos, Colombia, Queensland Census. GCC LSID: urn :lsid:compositae.org:names:620122B1-5A9F-4E4B-8EB7-03842EED9B9C

Last scrutiny: 21-Aug-09

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Mikania

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 11 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

M. congesta (Guaco) · M. cordata (Heartleaf Hempvine) · M. cordifolia (Florida Keys Hempvine) · M. fragilis (Fragile Hempvine) · M. micrantha (American Rope Mikania Micrantha) · M. millei (Poroto Angu) · M. odoratissima (Fragrant Hempvine) · M. pachyphylla (Luquillo Mountain Hempvine) · M. porosa (Puerto Rico Hempvine) · M. scandens (Climbing Boneset Mikania Scandens) · M. stevensiana (Maricao River Hempvine)

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 25, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Walter C. Holmes "Mikania". in Flora of North America Vol. 21 Page 459, 545, 546. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mean = 386.500 meters (1,268.045 feet), Standard Deviation = 955.020 based on 922 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/14/2012