Tetrastigma is a
genus of plants in the grape family,
Vitaceae. The plants are
lianas that climb with
tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are
dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterized by their four-lobed stigmas.[2] The species are found in subtropical and tropical regions of
Asia,
Malaysia, and
Australia, where they grow in primary rainforest,
gallery forest and
monsoon forest and moister
woodland. Species of this genus are notable as being the sole hosts of
parasitic plants in the family
Rafflesiaceae, one of which, Rafflesia arnoldii, produces the largest single flower in the world.[3]Tetrastigma is the donor species for
horizontal gene transfer to Sapria and Rafflesia due to multiple gene theft events.[4]
^Chen, Pingting; Chen, Longqing; Wen, Jun (2011). "The first phylogenetic analysis of Tetrastigma (Miq.) Planch., the host of Rafflesiaceae". Taxon. 60 (2): 499–512.
doi:
10.1002/tax.602017.
^Acta Palaeobotanica - 43(1): 9-49, January 2003 - Early Miocene carpological material from the Czech part of the Zittau Basin - Vasilis Teodoridis
^Messian to Zanclean vegetation and climate of Northern and Central Italy by Adele Bertini & Edoardo Martinetto, Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana, 47 (2), 2008, 105-121. Modena, 11 lugio 2008.
^Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521866453 (hardback),
ISBN9780521685535 (paperback). pp 376