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Muehlenbeckia australis
Pōhuehue is a rampant, flexible climbing shrub native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that can smother other plants and spread aggressively. It grows best where it has room to sprawl, and it is often treated as a pest rather than a garden plant.
Muehlenbeckia australis, commonly known as the large-leaved muehlenbeckia or pōhuehue, is a species of climbing plant in the family Polygonaceae. It is native to Norfolk Island and New Zealand, where its range extends across the mainland, Stewart Island, and the Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands. A fast-spreading and sometimes aggressive species, it is widely considered a pest plant, smothering vegetation and forming tangles of thickets.
The plant was first described in 1786 by the German botanist Georg Forster. M. australis's small flowers are pollinated by insects. The seeds are dispersed by fruit-eating animals (frugivores), such as birds and lizards. The plant provides host to many types of insects, such as moths, beetles, aphids, and gall mites. The indigenous Māori people ate the berries from the plant, and the stems were used to make fish traps.
Muehlenbeckia australis's seeds are dispersed by fruit-eating animals (frugivores), such as birds and lizards. Lizard frugivores include the New Zealand common gecko (Woodworthia maculata) and the Stephen's Island gecko (Toropuku stephensi). Several birds have been recorded as seed dispersers, including tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae), kererū (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), New Zealand bellbirds (Anthornis melanura), and silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis). M. australis's small flowers are pollinated by insects, including two beetle species.
The indigenous Māori people ate the berries raw, which have been described to have a sweet and juicy taste and they were popular with children. In Australia, a similar Muehlenbeckia plant had its berries used in the making of desserts. M. australis's stems were also used by Māori to make fish traps.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Muehlenbeckia australis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
