Ripogonum scandens facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ripogonum scandens
Supplejack with berries
Scientific classification
Genus:	Ripogonum
Species:	scandens

Supplejack (Ripogonum scandens) is a cool climbing plant found in New Zealand. The Māori names for it are kareao or pirita, which means 'twisted rope'. You can find supplejack growing in rainforests and even in swampy areas.

This plant is a type of vine called a liana. It has strong but bendy stems. When it's young, it sends out soft stems looking for something to climb. Once it finds a bush or tree, it wraps around it and grows upwards. This helps it reach the sunlight, where it then grows branches and leaves.

Supplejack flowers from December to February. But you can see its clusters of bright red berries all year round. In summer, supplejack tips can grow up to 5 centimetres (about 2 inches) every day! This fast growth helps the plant climb high into the forest canopy.

What is Supplejack?

The supplejack vine is an evergreen plant. This means it keeps its leaves all year long. It climbs by wrapping its stems around tree trunks and branches. If there are no trees to climb, the vines can form a big, tangled mess on the forest floor. This creates a thick, knotted area that can be hard to walk through.

When supplejack is young, it looks like a small bush. But as it gets older, its stems start to spiral around trees. In summer, if the weather is good, the tips of the vines can grow very fast. This allows them to climb high into the forest canopy. When the vines reach the sunlight at the top, they start to grow green, leafy stems instead of woody brown ones. These new stems then produce flowers and fruit.

Supplejack flowers from October to May, as long as the stem is in full sunlight. It produces small red berries, about 1 centimetre (less than half an inch) wide, throughout the year. The leaves are shiny and grow in pairs. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants. Female flowers produce the bigger berries.

How Was Supplejack Discovered?

In 1769, during explorer Lieutenant James Cook's first trip to New Zealand, two botanists named Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected supplejack plants. Solander wrote about the plant in his notes, and Sydney Parkinson drew pictures of it.

Cook visited New Zealand again in 1773. While his ship was at Dusky Bay (now Dusky Sound), he wrote in his journal:

In many parts the woods are so over-run with supplejacks, that it is scarcely possible to force one's way amongst them. I have seen several which were fifty or sixty fathoms long.

This means the vines were so thick it was hard to move through the forest! He saw some vines that were 50 or 60 fathoms long (a fathom is about 6 feet, so that's 300 to 360 feet!).

On this same trip, a naturalist named Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster also collected plants. The elder Forster wrote about supplejack:

A kind of climbing plant called the supple Jack by our Sailors, on account of its pliancy, bears red berries, something similar to cherries, & runs up the highest trees, climbs over to another, & after having made its way over many of them, it often comes again down & strikes fresh roots.

This shows how flexible the plant is and how it spreads through the forest. In 1776, the Forsters officially named the plant Ripogonum scandens.

Traditional Māori Uses

The Māori traditionally used supplejack for many things. They used the strong, flexible vine to tie and pull objects. For example, it was used to tie bundles of firewood together. It was also used to tow small canoes.

Supplejack was also important in traditional Māori medicine. The roots were boiled to make a drink. This drink was used to help with problems like rheumatism (sore joints), fevers, and skin diseases. The soft, fresh shoots of the vine could also be eaten. They were eaten either raw or cooked like a vegetable.

Where Does Supplejack Grow?

Natural Global Range

Supplejack is only found in New Zealand.

New Zealand Range

You can find supplejack on the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It also grows on a few smaller islands like Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands. It mostly lives in lowland and mountain forests. These forests are often full of hardwood trees and podocarps.

Supplejack is not found on the Three Kings Islands or the Poor Knights Islands. It's also rare in the Hawke’s Bay area, only appearing in old coastal forests. In the North Island, it can grow at altitudes up to 900 meters (about 2,950 feet). In the South Island, it usually stays closer to the coast. It's less common in Marlborough, Canterbury, and Otago, where it's found in small patches of old forests. However, supplejack is very common on the western coast of the South Island.

Habitat Preferences

Supplejack can grow in many different types of soil. It can be found in red-brown loams, pumice, and yellow-brown soils. It can even survive in swampy forests where the soil might be flooded sometimes. In these wet areas, you might see its roots looping above the ground.

Because supplejack is a climbing plant, it needs strong trees or branches to climb up. If there are no supports, the plant will stay as a tangled bush on the forest floor.

Life Cycle of Supplejack

You can see supplejack shoots (new growths) at any time of the year. However, they are most common in springtime. This is when the sun gets stronger, helping the plant make more food.

The plant's male parts (anthers) appear in December and January. Once the flowers are pollinated by insects or wind, the fruit takes about 12 to 15 months to fully ripen. This is why you can see berries all year round. The seeds can grow easily into new plants, as long as they don't dry out.

What Harms Supplejack?

Supplejack is a food source for many birds and mammals. Birds like the kereru (Hemiphaga novae-seelandiae) and blackbirds (Turdus merula) love to eat its fruit. Kaka (a type of parrot) also eat supplejack berries. Sometimes, too many animals eat the leaves or fruit, leaving the plant bare.

Over the years, the number of introduced animals in New Zealand has grown. This puts pressure on supplejack and can cause its numbers to decrease. A new climbing plant, Geitonoplesium cymosum, has also arrived in New Zealand. It looks a lot like supplejack. There is a worry that if this new plant spreads, it could out-compete and harm the native supplejack.

Wild pigs can also damage young supplejack plants. As they dig through the forest floor looking for food, they can uproot growing supplejack. Deer and cattle also harm supplejack by eating the seedlings and young plants. Possums are another animal in New Zealand forests that eat the flesh of the supplejack fruit.

There is also a type of fungus that can grow on supplejack's stems and leaves. This fungus is called Trichopeltheca asiatica and looks like a sooty mold. It can cover the plant, which makes it harder for supplejack to make its own food from sunlight.

Some types of moths also affect supplejack. For example, the larvae (young) of the moth Ctenopseustis obliquana can be found in ripe fruit. They also eat the stems, leaves, and flowers of the supplejack plant.